Background: FBI court filings show Chris Worrell pepper spraying police on Jan. 6, 2021 at the U.S. Capitol. Inset: Chris Worrell photo courtesy of FBI
Florida Proud Boys member Christopher Worrell, facing more than a decade behind bars for assaulting police at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, was caught by the FBI on Thursday after spending more than a month on the lam in an apparent attempt to evade sentencing.
Facing up to 14 years in prison for his violent conduct at the Capitol, Worrell was convicted of multiple felonies in May after a five-day bench trial in Washington, D.C. He was found guilty of assaulting police with pepper spray gel, obstructing an official proceeding, impeding officers during a civil disorder, entering and remaining in a restricted building with a deadly or dangerous weapon, disorderly conduct with a deadly weapon and engaging in physical violence with a deadly or dangerous weapon. Worrell was also convicted of undertaking an act of violence on Capitol grounds, a misdemeanor.
The Florida man, a member of the self-described “Western chauvinist” Proud Boys extremist group, was first slated to appear before Senior U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth for sentencing on Aug. 18, Law&Crime reported. But mere days before he was due in court, the hearing was vacated.
Worrell had gone missing. A nationwide search got underway in September.
When FBI agents found him Thursday, according to statement provided to Law&Crime, Worrell was trying to “covertly return” to his home in Naples, Florida. Agents reportedly surrounded his property and once inside, found Worrell unconscious. He was given medical attention.
Agents also said they found $4,000 cash in the house, survivalist gear and night-vision goggles.
FBI wanted poster updated to show Proud Boys member Christopher Worrell as “captured” on Sept. 28, 2023.
Now that Worrell has been captured, it is unclear when he will face sentencing and whether this could hurt his chances to convince Lamberth, a Ronald Reagan appointee, to sentence him to 30 months or less in prison, a request he previously made to the court through his attorney William Shipley. Shipley did not immediately return a request for comment Friday.
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Lamberth has looked sympathetically upon Worrell in the past. The judge, in fact, held the warden of the D.C Jail and the director of the D.C. Department of Corrections in contempt for failing to give the Proud Boy proper care. Worrell suffers from non-Hodgkin lymphoma and while he was detained, he told the court that the D.C. Jail had ignored his medical needs. Jail officials were asked to provide documentation about Worrell’s care, but did not. The judge held the jail officials in contempt and Worrell was allowed to go on home detention.
During the Proud Boys seditious conspiracy trial earlier this year, Christopher Worrell was one of many Proud Boys outside of those charged defendants on trial who federal prosecutors argued were “tools” of the alleged conspiracy to forcibly stop the transfer of power on Jan. 6, 2021 — the Constitutionally-designated day on which Congress met to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral win.
“Tools,” like Worrell, were those Proud Boys who marched on the Capitol with the now-convicted seditious conspirators including Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and associates Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean and Zachary Rehl. Also charged in that group was Dominic Pezzola, whose busting open of a Senate window with a stolen police riot shield led to the first waves of rioters getting inside the building. Pezzola was acquitted of seditious conspiracy, but found guilty of obstructing an official proceeding and several other charges.
Justice Department lawyers said Worrell and other so-called “tools” of the conspiracy acted as a force multiplier, pushing the Proud Boys’ numbers to at least 200 that day. According to prosecutors, they were privy to group and private chats where vitriol and violent rhetoric fomented rage as they and others descended on Washington, D.C. Many took direction from Proud Boy leaders on where to go, what to do and how to comport themselves as they encountered police and they were instrumental in riling up what Proud Boys defendants and witnesses alike at trial described as the “normies” in the crowd, or non-Proud Boy supporters of Donald Trump.
Christopher Worrell (via FBI court filings).
Worrell was in the marching group led by Biggs, Rehl and Nordean on Jan. 6 and he was a member of the group’s “Boots on the Ground” chat. Footage and other evidence used to charge him and presented at the seditious conspiracy trial showed that as Worrell advanced on the Capitol and passed police — who were clearly outnumbered by Proud Boys at the time — he yelled at them menacingly.
“Pick a side,” Worrell could be heard screaming.
“Honor your oath!” he also yelled, according to live trial reporting.
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