PLEADED GUILTY - A Utahn who became one of the faces of the Capitol riots pleaded guilty Thursday. Landon Copeland faces up to 8 years in prison.
Landon Copeland admitted to a felony count of assaulting resisting or impeding officers with a dangerous weapon in Thursday's hearing and faces up to eight years in prison.Copeland became a symbol of what happened on January 6, 2021, when news photographers captured images of him wrestling with police over a crowd control fence.
He told FOX 13 News last year that a police officer was hitting him in the legs with a baton, so he took his baton from the officer. Landon's brother, Brenden Copeland, spoke to FOX 13 News and said he doesn't believe his brother committed a crime. "This is the worst miscarriage of justice in the history of the United States,” Brenden Copeland said in part. “He was assaulted. Then he reacted exactly the same way I would expect anybody to react.”
Landon Copeland has been in the Hurricane, Utah jail for a year and that time will be credited toward his sentence. Sentencing is scheduled for September 9.