Former Uniontown man receives longest prison sentence of any J6 defendant

The former Fayette County man who showered pepper spray onto police officers protecting the U.S. Capitol has received the longest prison sentence thus far of any defendant convicted in the Jan. 6 riot.
Peter Schwartz was sentenced last week by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington, D.C., to serve more than 14 years in federal prison following his conviction by a jury on all charges in December.
“You are not a political prisoner,” Mehta told Schwartz during his sentencing, according to the Associated Press. “You’re not somebody who is standing up against injustice or fighting against an autocratic regime.”
Schwartz offered a brief apology, according to the AP, although he has mostly been defiant through the legal process following his arrest in February 2021 while living at a Uniontown apartment.
“I do sincerely regret the damage that Jan. 6 has caused to so many people and their lives,” Schwartz told the court, according to the AP.
Schwartz, 49, was convicted on Dec. 6 on 10 charges – including four felonies – alongside two co-defendants. He has been jailed without bond since his arrest.
In the government’s sentencing memorandum, federal prosecutors asked for Mehta to impose a 24-year prison sentence against Schwartz and require that he forfeit more than $71,000 from an online fundraising campaign set up by people who referred to him as “Patriot Pete Political Prisoner in DC.”
“Schwartz should not be able to ‘capitalize’ on his participation in the Capitol breach in this way, nor should he be able to profit from the damage that he caused to police officers or to the Capitol grounds,” prosecutors wrote in the pre-sentence memo.
Prosecutors also alluded to Schwartz’s lengthy criminal record as a reason for a longer sentence. Schwartz is a convicted felon on state charges in Kentucky, where he’s originally from, and was released from prison in that state in 2020 due to COVID-19 safety protocols. He and his wife, Shelly Stallings, moved to Uniontown so Schwartz could work as a traveling welder working on various construction sites.
Prosecutors said Schwartz has “shown no indication that he regrets his conduct” related to his role in the Jan. 6 riot.
“As his criminal history makes abundantly clear, Schwartz cannot be deterred from violent conduct,” prosecutors said. “The only reliable method of protecting the community from Schwartz in the future is to remove him from the community for as long as possible.”
Schwartz’s defense attorneys asked the judge to impose a much more lenient sentence of 4 ½ years and tried to compare his actions to other J6 defendants who received lighter punishment.
“Although his conduct is indeed serious, it is significant to note that Mr. Schwartz’s actions were not motivated by any desire for personal financial gain or any other type of benefit,” his attorneys wrote in their pre-sentence report. “Rather, his actions were motivated by a misunderstanding as to the facts surrounding the 2020 election. Indeed, Mr. Schwartz knew next to nothing about the 2020 election and listened to sources of information that were clearly false.”
Mehta’s sentence of 14 years and two months appeared to split the difference between the two sides, but it still is the longest prison term imposed on anyone convicted in the Capitol riot so far.
Schwartz and Stallings traveled from their Cleveland Avenue apartment in Uniontown to Washington, D.C., and attended a rally supporting former president Donald Trump before they walked toward the Capitol and participated in the riot. In addition to hosing down officers with the chemical spray, prosecutors also said Schwartz threw a chair at the police line, participated in the “heave-ho” trying to push through into the Capitol and wielded a wooden tire baton during the attack.
Stallings, 43, pleaded guilty in August to also using pepper spray on police officers during the attack, and she was sentenced by Mehta last month to serve two years in federal prison. Stalling returned to her hometown in Morgantown, Ky., and has since filed for divorce.