The day after taking part in a mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol to stop the peaceful transition of power, prosecutors say, a 49-year-old Indiana woman exulted.
“That was the most exciting day of my life,” Anna Morgan-Lloyd told the friend and hairdresser who had joined her that day, according to court filings. “I’m so glad we were there. For the experience and memory but most of all we can spread the truth about what happened and open the eyes of some of our friends.”
Now Morgan-Lloyd says her eyes have been opened to a different truth. The registered Democrat-turned-Trump supporter is set to plead guilty Wednesday and become the first person sentenced in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
In a letter to the judge who will decide her punishment, Morgan-Lloyd said she was “ashamed that something meant to show support for the President had turned violent.”
“At first it didn’t dawn on me, but later I realized that if every person like me, who wasn’t violent, was removed from that crowd, the ones who were violent may have lost the nerve to do what they did,” she wrote. “For that I am sorry and take responsibility. It was never my intent to help empower people to act violently.”
With the help of her attorney, she said she has also been learning “what life is like for others in our country,” particularly Black, Jewish and Native Americans. She wrote to the judge about reading the books “Just Mercy” and “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” and watching the movies “Schindler’s List” and “Slavery by Another Name.”
“I’ve lived a sheltered life and truly haven’t experienced life the way many have,” Morgan-Lloyd wrote. “I’ve learned that even though we live in a wonderful country things still need to improve. People of all colors should feel as safe as I do to walk down the street.”
A sprawling investigation: What we know so far about the Capitol riot suspects
A guilty plea is not official until it is accepted by the court, but Morgan-Lloyd’s defense submitted a sentencing request stating that she will plead guilty at a combined plea hearing and sentencing at 2:30 p.m.
In their first sentencing recommendation for any of the hundreds of people charged with taking part in the Capitol riot, prosecutors requested that Morgan-Lloyd receive no jail time, perform 40 hours of community service, complete three years of probation and pay $500 in restitution.
“To be clear, what the Defendant initially described as ‘the most exciting day of [her] life’ was, in fact, a tragic day for our nation — a day of riotous violence, collective destruction, and criminal conduct by a frenzied and lawless mob,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Rothstein wrote. “However … [Morgan-Lloyd’s] seeming prior bravado … appears to have been tempered by a realization of the consequences of her actions.”
Rothstein called probation appropriate because Morgan-Lloyd had no known ties to extremist groups, did not plan to enter the Capitol, stayed inside for only about 10 minutes and did not commit any violence or destruction while there. She also cooperated with law enforcement and quickly accepted responsibility, the prosecutor said. And he noted that she spent two days in jail after her arrest.
“For an individual that has no prior criminal history or interactions with law enforcement and the penal system, any period of incarceration can be eye-opening,” Rothstein said.
Read the government’s sentencing recommendation here
A former waitress and General Electric employee whose job was moved offshore, Morgan-Lloyd was born in rural Indiana and married her teenage crush when both were adults and he was going through a difficult divorce, defense attorney H. Heather Shaner said.
Morgan-Lloyd said in court papers that she graduated from community college, worked for a medical device maker and is mother to two stepdaughters and helps care for five grandchildren.
Raised a Democrat, she supported Trump for president beginning in 2016.
“My husband and I both found it hard to believe because we didn’t like him at all before. But he was standing up for what we believe in. We couldn’t argue with it,” Morgan-Lloyd wrote. “We felt that when [Democrats] worked against him they worked against me, my family and my community.”
Read the defendant’s sentencing memo here
She said she and her friends came to Washington to “show that a lot of American people support Trump,” and that she did not intend to do more than walk to the Capitol.
“When a 74 year old woman, we met that day, went up, we followed to keep her safe. I made the decision to go up and I’m responsible for that. No one made me go, I wasn’t forced. When she entered the building, we went in to find her. Once again I could have chosen to stay outside,” she wrote.
The government sentencing recommendation doubles the maximum 18-month term of supervision normally recommended for those convicted of parading, picketing or demonstrating in the Capitol, and most first-time misdemeanor offenders do not receive prison time.
Prosecutors have been allowing first-time offenders charged only with misdemeanors at the Capitol — roughly half the total — to plead guilty to a single count, pay $500 in restitution and meet with investigators.
Two defendants have pleaded guilty to more serious felony offenses. Jon Ryan Schaffer, 53, described in court documents as a founding member of the Oath Keepers, is cooperating with prosecutors in hopes of trimming a roughly four-year recommended prison term for obstructing an official proceeding of Congress and trespassing in the Capitol while armed.
Tampa crane operator Paul Allard Hodgkins, 38, faces a 15- to 21-month recommended sentencing range after pleading to felony obstruction of Congress.
“That was the most exciting day of my life,” Anna Morgan-Lloyd told the friend and hairdresser who had joined her that day, according to court filings. “I’m so glad we were there. For the experience and memory but most of all we can spread the truth about what happened and open the eyes of some of our friends.”
Now Morgan-Lloyd says her eyes have been opened to a different truth. The registered Democrat-turned-Trump supporter is set to plead guilty Wednesday and become the first person sentenced in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
In a letter to the judge who will decide her punishment, Morgan-Lloyd said she was “ashamed that something meant to show support for the President had turned violent.”
“At first it didn’t dawn on me, but later I realized that if every person like me, who wasn’t violent, was removed from that crowd, the ones who were violent may have lost the nerve to do what they did,” she wrote. “For that I am sorry and take responsibility. It was never my intent to help empower people to act violently.”
With the help of her attorney, she said she has also been learning “what life is like for others in our country,” particularly Black, Jewish and Native Americans. She wrote to the judge about reading the books “Just Mercy” and “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” and watching the movies “Schindler’s List” and “Slavery by Another Name.”
“I’ve lived a sheltered life and truly haven’t experienced life the way many have,” Morgan-Lloyd wrote. “I’ve learned that even though we live in a wonderful country things still need to improve. People of all colors should feel as safe as I do to walk down the street.”
A sprawling investigation: What we know so far about the Capitol riot suspects
A guilty plea is not official until it is accepted by the court, but Morgan-Lloyd’s defense submitted a sentencing request stating that she will plead guilty at a combined plea hearing and sentencing at 2:30 p.m.
In their first sentencing recommendation for any of the hundreds of people charged with taking part in the Capitol riot, prosecutors requested that Morgan-Lloyd receive no jail time, perform 40 hours of community service, complete three years of probation and pay $500 in restitution.
“To be clear, what the Defendant initially described as ‘the most exciting day of [her] life’ was, in fact, a tragic day for our nation — a day of riotous violence, collective destruction, and criminal conduct by a frenzied and lawless mob,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Rothstein wrote. “However … [Morgan-Lloyd’s] seeming prior bravado … appears to have been tempered by a realization of the consequences of her actions.”
Rothstein called probation appropriate because Morgan-Lloyd had no known ties to extremist groups, did not plan to enter the Capitol, stayed inside for only about 10 minutes and did not commit any violence or destruction while there. She also cooperated with law enforcement and quickly accepted responsibility, the prosecutor said. And he noted that she spent two days in jail after her arrest.
“For an individual that has no prior criminal history or interactions with law enforcement and the penal system, any period of incarceration can be eye-opening,” Rothstein said.
Read the government’s sentencing recommendation here
A former waitress and General Electric employee whose job was moved offshore, Morgan-Lloyd was born in rural Indiana and married her teenage crush when both were adults and he was going through a difficult divorce, defense attorney H. Heather Shaner said.
Morgan-Lloyd said in court papers that she graduated from community college, worked for a medical device maker and is mother to two stepdaughters and helps care for five grandchildren.
Raised a Democrat, she supported Trump for president beginning in 2016.
“My husband and I both found it hard to believe because we didn’t like him at all before. But he was standing up for what we believe in. We couldn’t argue with it,” Morgan-Lloyd wrote. “We felt that when [Democrats] worked against him they worked against me, my family and my community.”
Read the defendant’s sentencing memo here
She said she and her friends came to Washington to “show that a lot of American people support Trump,” and that she did not intend to do more than walk to the Capitol.
“When a 74 year old woman, we met that day, went up, we followed to keep her safe. I made the decision to go up and I’m responsible for that. No one made me go, I wasn’t forced. When she entered the building, we went in to find her. Once again I could have chosen to stay outside,” she wrote.
The government sentencing recommendation doubles the maximum 18-month term of supervision normally recommended for those convicted of parading, picketing or demonstrating in the Capitol, and most first-time misdemeanor offenders do not receive prison time.
Prosecutors have been allowing first-time offenders charged only with misdemeanors at the Capitol — roughly half the total — to plead guilty to a single count, pay $500 in restitution and meet with investigators.
Two defendants have pleaded guilty to more serious felony offenses. Jon Ryan Schaffer, 53, described in court documents as a founding member of the Oath Keepers, is cooperating with prosecutors in hopes of trimming a roughly four-year recommended prison term for obstructing an official proceeding of Congress and trespassing in the Capitol while armed.
Tampa crane operator Paul Allard Hodgkins, 38, faces a 15- to 21-month recommended sentencing range after pleading to felony obstruction of Congress.
