Background left: Miles Adkins at a school board meeting in Frederick County, Virginia (YouTube screengrab/WRC). Inset: Adkins selfie at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 (via DOJ court filing). Background right: Adkins, circled in yellow, taking the hand of a rioter helping him over a window ledge at the U.S. Capitol (via DOJ court filing).
Miles Adkins, 39, a former U.S. Marine and current member of the Frederick County School Board in Virginia who was among the first wave of rioters that breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, will spend 12 days in jail after he was sentenced this week by a federal judge for two misdemeanors including disorderly and disruptive conduct and parading and demonstrating inside of the Capitol.
Despite this sentence and calls for him to step down from the school board, Adkins, a resident of Stephens City, refuses to leave his position and told local outlets like the Winchester Star ahead of his sentencing on Monday that he thinks the Justice Department was applying the “same old double standard” to him and he regretted the violence that unfolded the Capitol but he sees “misinformation” occurring around Jan. 6. He meanwhile told Virginia’s NBC affiliate WRC that he was “gonna keep the main thing the main thing.”
“The main thing is, you know, to educate the children and everything. You see our test scores rising,” Adkins said Monday before his sentencing by U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee.
To his detractors calling for his resignation from the Frederick County School Board, he said Monday: “You’re gonna need a bigger wrecking ball to get me out of there.”
He was elected to the board in 2021.
In addition to spending 12 days in prison over consecutive weekends — one day per weekend for 12 weeks — he must serve probation for two years and a fine of $1,000 was assessed. A surrender date was not available from the Bureau of Prisons on Tuesday
A spokesperson for the Frederick County School Board said the organization was aware that Adkins had been sentenced but its focus “will stay where it needs to: on the children in our country.”
“We will continue to make decisions that serve in the best interests of our students while working to ensure that the educational environment in our schools is not disrupted by these events,” the spokesperson told CBS affiliate WUSA on Monday.
The spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment to Law&Crime on Tuesday.
According to a statement of offense and plea agreement, Adkins planned to come to Washington, D.C., to attend former President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally but missed it and instead walked to the Capitol’s west front before getting to the Upper West Terrace where police lines had been breached.
He entered the Capitol through a Senate wing door at 2:15 p.m., “within minutes of the first breach of the Capitol, although he knew he had no authority to enter the building,” court records show.
He wouldn’t leave until 3:33 p.m. and was inside as lawmakers were being evacuated.
Once inside, he waved other rioters who were outside to come in and even helped a man to get inside, clasping his hand in his to escort him over a broken window near the Senate wing door. Adkins made it to the upper lobby of the Capitol’s visitor center and walked close to where police were confronting rioters as he drank a beer.
Adkins, previously convicted of driving under the influence, boasted about imbibing whiskey and beer inside the Capitol in a Jan. 6 Facebook chat.
“I drank fireball and coors lite in the Capitol,” he said in one message after declaring he was “getting food then fighting.”
“You guys better go out with a bang,” the person chatting with Adkins replied. “Don’t let it be for nothing.”
Adkins replied with a racial epithet.
Left: Justice Department exhibits show Facebook messages sent by Miles Adkins boasting of drinking in the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and using a racial slur (blurred). Right: Adkins, circled in red, leaving the Capitol building (images via DOJ).
As part of his plea agreement, Adkins admitted that he walked into the Crypt of the Capitol and “danced around in the middle of a group of rioters, yelling and chanting.”
Federal prosecutors sought 45 days in prison for Adkins plus three years of supervised probation, writing in a sentencing memorandum last month that he was remorseless during FBI interviews and “downplayed his conduct.”
They also pointed out that he had instructed recipients of his photos and videos from Jan. 6 not to share them.
Prosecutors cited his criminal history as well which includes a DUI conviction after refusing to undergo a breath test on June 8, 2023. He received a suspended sentence in that case of 30 days in jail and 12 months of supervised release that expires this September.
Adkins was also convicted of a hit-and-run in Martin County, Florida on Nov. 12, 2014, and was sentenced to probation only until that was revoked and he was sentenced to six months probation with time served, a sentencing memorandum states.
Prosecutors pointed out to the judge in Washington, D.C., that Adkins also “appears to have been convicted several times of driving under a suspended license after the hit and run conviction.”
Background: Facebook messages show Adkins saying it was “us” who took the Capitol on Jan. 6, not “Antifa,” and admitting to being inside of the U.S. Capitol. Inset: Justice Department photo depicts Adkins chanting inside Capitol crypt (images via DOJ).
“Adkins reported to the FBI that he served in the Marines as was referenced by one of his Facebook friends in a message. Military service and training should have taught Adkins the importance of supporting and defending the rule of law and the police officers who were trying to protect the seat of Congress,” prosecutors wrote on June 24.
Adkins’ attorney sought just a year of probation and argued for leniency since Adkins pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors. Plus, his sentencing memorandum argued, his conduct was “closer to the reckless than malicious end” on Jan. 6.
In that same memorandum, Adkins’ attorney highlighted that his client served in Iraq in 2005-2006 and was injured when a heavy aircraft part fell on his back. Adkins completed his tour and was honorably discharged in 2008 but symptoms of post-traumatic stress “followed him into civilian life” as well as other troubles, including the loss of two babies to genetic defects and addiction to pain pills and alcohol.
Adkins went into rehab in Ohio after getting a divorce but did not complete the program. Instead, his attorney told the judge last month that he moved into a homeless shelter in South Carolina, attended a VA program and met other veterans associated with the Warrior Surf Foundation where he later worked and “transitioned into civilian life.”
Since his arrest in March and his subsequent prosecution, his attorney told the court that Adkins has been subjected to “very public criticism from his political opponents” while acknowledging that the Stephens City man is “unapologetic” in his political views.
Nevertheless, he said, the “spotlight caused by his case has taken an emotional toll.”
In January 2021, Adkins was “swept up in the momentum of the mob” and believed he was “on the side of God and Country,” his attorney said.
“Hindsight has since disabused him of that notion,” his sentencing memorandum states.
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