Matthew Honigford, 31, of Delphos, was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. to 19 months in prison for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, uprising at the U.S. Capitol.
Photos courtesy of U.S. Justice Department
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Delphos man who admitted he assaulted members of the Metropolitan Police Department with a flag pole during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurgency at the U.S. Capitol was sentenced Monday to 19 months in prison.
In addition to prison time, Judge Tanya Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia sentenced Matthew Honigford, 31, to be placed on supervised release for two years following his release and pay $2,000 in restitution.
Honigford was indicted in July 2023 on nine counts that included civil disorder, assaulting or impeding officers using a deadly weapon, entering a restricted building or grounds with a dangerous weapon and disorderly and disruptive conduct. He was arrested in Ohio by the FBI on Nov. 21, 2023. Earlier this year, he entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to a single count of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers.
In a sentencing memorandum filed with the court Aug. 9, prosecutors requested a 27-month prison sentence and two years of probation for Honigford, which they said was the “midpoint” of sentencing guidelines as calculated by the parties. Attorneys with the Federal Public Defenders office asked for a 16-month sentence.
Facing the consequences
Honigford’s attorney said in a pre-sentence report that her client “knows he has to face the consequences of this offense, and he wants to set a good example for his children and others in doing so. He has already accepted responsibility for his offense … (and) comes before this court for sentencing carrying with him the support of family and friends. This support will aid him as he serves the sentence this court hands down and as he transitions back to life with his family after imprisonment. Mr. Honigford looks forward to simpler living once he serves his sentence. He hopes to live on a homestead, provide for his family, and get back to nature.”
The public defender’s memorandum said Honigford, married and the father of three, hit a low point in life while caring for his sister, who fought a lengthy battle against leukemia and eventually died in March 2022.
“It was in the midst of all this — the anger, the sadness, the distrust over the handling of COVID— that Mr. Honigford went to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021,” his attorney wrote, adding that Honigford’s “entire outlook on life and his future has completely evolved since that time. He feels he has purpose to his life and his faith to support him,” the report says.
‘There are a million of us’
Prosecutors said Honigford participated during the uprising in a “violent attack” on the U.S. Capitol which “threatened the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 presidential election, injured more than 100 police officers and resulted in more than $2.9 million in losses.”
Government attorneys claim Honigford was at the front of a group of rioters that overwhelmed a police line on the southwest plaza of the Capitol grounds to gain access to a set of stairs and “held a United States flag on a flag pole horizontally in front of him and pushed it into the chest of one officer from the Metropolitan Police Department.”
Footage from a body camera worn by a member of the Metropolitan Police Department captured Honigford shouting at officers outside the Capitol, saying, “You better think f—-ing twice. You are about to meet a million pissed off f—-ing people.”
Prosecutors maintain that as the crowd erupted into a “USA” chant, Honigford raised his right hand in a gesture of encouragement. He allegedly further taunted officers by saying “there’s no one behind you; there are a million of us.”
Honigford then joined other rioters and advanced up a set of stairs, where officers were using bike racks to form a barrier against the crowd. He “repeatedly reached over the bike racks to touch officers with his hands, stating that he was praying for them,” according to the sentencing memorandum.”He then berated officers and shouted that they would be “fighting for (their) lives tonight.”
The government said Honigford at the time of the incident was absent without leave from his drill obligations with the Ohio National Guard. He was subsequently discharged in March 2022.
Honigford did not enter the U.S. Capitol building, prosecutors said.
Federal prosecutors said that in the 43 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,488 individuals have been charged for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including nearly 550 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.
