Left: Mark Waynick (in black shirt) and Jerry McKane Waynick (in red) at the “Stop the Steal” Rally in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021. Right: The pair inside the U.S. Capitol (Department of Justice).
A father and son from Tennessee have received yearslong prison sentences for assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Mark Waynick, 53, and his son Jerry McKane Waynick, 21, were each convicted at a bench trial of 11 felonies, including assaulting law enforcement with a dangerous weapon. U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly, a Donald Trump appointee, sentenced the elder Waynick to 4 1/2 years in prison and his son to 2 1/2 years in prison. Each will be on probation for three years after their prison release and must pay a $2,000 fine.
The Waynicks attended Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally and then headed toward the Capitol as Congress was certifying the 2020 Presidential election results. Wearing helmets, tactical vests, gloves and goggles, they entered the closed-off Capitol grounds shortly after the initial breach and joined rioters fighting with Metropolitan Police Department and United States Capitol Police officers who were trying to keep them out of the building.
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Shortly after 1:30 p.m., Jerry Waynick saw cops trying to arrest a fellow rioter and he pulled the man away from law enforcement, cops said. At the same time the elder Waynick swung an American flag attached to a metal pole with a metal finial into the line of cops. One of the officers grabbed the pole and snatched it away from him, according to prosecutors. A few minutes later, Jerry Waynick picked up a 10-pound plastic construction barrel and chucked it at police officers, hitting two of them.
The father and son duo were also among those rioters who gathered outside the House chamber chanting “Break it down.” Rioters eventually busted through the door and entered the chamber. Someone recording the incident asked the younger Waynick what he had seen. He replied there were “guns” and said “We’re an imminent threat to the people inside.”
The Waynicks left the Capitol shortly before 3 p.m.
The younger Waynick was seen on police bodycam trying to grab an officer’s baton. (DOJ)
As Law&Crime previously reported, the Waynicks were ensnared in part by social media — particularly, the son’s Instagram account and that of his mother, who is not accused of wrongdoing.
From there, the FBI says that it spotted the son wearing a shirt with the name of the family business: “Waynick Plumbing.” FBI agents arrested the pair on Feb. 17, 2022, in Tennessee.
Prosecutors in their sentencing memorandum wrote that the Waynicks’ “felonious conduct on January 6, 2021 was part of a massive riot that almost succeeded in preventing the certification vote from being carried out, frustrating the peaceful transition of Presidential power, and throwing the United States into a Constitutional crisis.”
The government requested the judge sentence Mark Waynick to over seven years in prison and his son to about nine years. Mark Waynick’s attorney asked for a sentence of six months in jail. Olin J. Baker, an attorney for Jerry Waynick, requested probation and community service, arguing that his client got caught up in the moment and was sorry for his actions.
As for wearing the riot gear, Jerry Waynick said in his sentencing memo he did so at the behest of his mother who was worried that “Antifa” would show up and cause violence. Ahead of sentencing, Baker had also requested that U.S. Marshals give his client a haircut and shave as he had not been groomed in several weeks as he was locked up. Baker said that when he called the Marshals service with the request, someone with a “gravelly” voice answered and told the lawyer “oh hell naw” before hanging up. It’s not clear if his client actually received a haircut.
Adam Klasfeld contributed to this report.
