A Bedford man was sentenced to 24 months of probation and ordered to pay $510 in restitution and fees Monday for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
William Lance Wilkerson, 39, was arrested in June and pled guilty in July to parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building, a violation of Title 40, Section 5104(e)(2)(g) of the U.S. code.
According to unsealed charging documents, Wilkerson was spotted in surveillance footage entering the Capitol through the Senate Wing doors at approximately 3:24 p.m. He then made his way to the Crypt (a large circular room below the rotunda) before leaving the building five minutes later.
Although Wilkerson was visible in a video stream of the attack, he wasn’t identified until late last year when he was seen in surveillance footage selling scrap metal at JB Salvage in Bloomington.
In one of four visits to the site, Wilkerson was wearing the same green jacket he was wearing on Jan. 6.
According to the FBI, Wilkerson posted several photos in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6 on his Facebook page. One of them was a selfie at the Washington Monument with the caption, “I made it here showing my colors.” In another post on Jan. 7, he wrote, “Real patriots did infiltrate the capitol. I watched it happen. The media is all lies unless they were there.”
He was initially charged with four counts, but three were dropped in the plea agreement. Wilkerson agreed to 30 days incarceration in that deal, but on Monday that was reduced to two years of probation, with conditions.
