Idaho woman convicted in Capitol riot will be in prison for next presidential election
Published at | Updated at
Sally Krutzig, Idaho Statesman
BOISE (Idaho Statesman) — A Boise woman was one of the first to break through the police line and enter the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when a violent mob of Donald Trump supporters was trying to disrupt certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election.
Video footage showed Yvonne St Cyr yelling, “We need fresh people” and “push, push, push.” In the past three years, she has continued posting conspiracy theories about the government online.
If she wants to protest the 2024 presidential election, she’ll have to do it from prison.
A Washington, D.C., federal judge on Wednesday sentenced St Cyr, 55, to 30 months in prison and three years of supervised release, according to a Department of Justice news release. District Judge John D. Bates also ordered her to pay $3,000 in restitution and fines.
In March, a jury convicted St Cyr of two felony counts of obstructing and interfering with law enforcement during a civil disorder, and four misdemeanors: entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
RELATED | At U.S. Capitol riot, residents of Idaho were online and on ‘sacred ground’
After the sentencing, St Cyr took to social media to sound off.
“I will have a report date probably in about six weeks,” St Cyr said in a Facebook video. “So we’ve got six weeks for America to figure it out and stand up and get some truth, or I’m going to jail. But that’s OK, because if I go to jail, I’m going to take a lot of information with me, and I’m going to teach a lot of women how to think and become free individuals.”
She also said she thought it was unfair that the judge wouldn’t allow her to play a video compilation of former President Trump speaking. She also claimed that she hasn’t been paying taxes since President Joe Biden took office, and she encouraged others to stop paying them as well.
St Cyr showed ‘lack of remorse’ and ‘disrespect,’ U.S. attorney said
A mob of rioters stormed the Capitol in 2021 on the day that Congress was certifying the election results. They attacked law enforcement officers and vandalized the building, including lawmakers’ offices. At least seven people died in connection with the violence, including officers who died by suicide, according to a bipartisan Senate report.
St Cyr traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend Trump’s rally, where he repeated falsehoods about the election being rigged in Biden’s favor and urged his followers to “fight like hell.” After leaving the rally, she joined a crowd of people occupying the West Plaza of the Capitol, according to the Justice Department release. St Cyr was part of a group who broke through a police line, and she was one of the first to enter the Lower West Plaza tunnel, prosecutors said.
Evidence showed that she crawled through a broken window into a Senate office space and helped another rioter enter as well.
Matthew Graves, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said in court documents that St Cyr showed no remorse for her actions. After the trial, she publicly called the United States justice system “corrupt” and proclaimed that she “had every right to be there” when speaking about the Capitol riot.
“Her words show a lack of remorse, disrespect for the law, and disregard for the legal process,” Graves said in the sentencing memorandum.
Her family wrote letters of support for the judge to review for sentencing. Husband Troy St Cyr parroted Trump by writing about “fraudulent election tampering.”
“I understand you may feel she made a mistake and what she did was not right, but I am proud of her and what she stood up for,” wrote her daughter, Kayla Rodriguez. “She practiced her freedom of speech. She didn’t riot or break/damage property, and she stood her ground through all of this.”
Graves had recommend that St Cyr be given 33 months in prison, pointing out a history of criminal activity. St Cyr was arrested in December 2020 for trespassing after she refused to leave Boise’s Central District Health building during a meeting about the COVID-19 pandemic and health measures being taken. She was dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Marine Corps for a drug offense.
Other Idahoans charged in Capitol riot
Nearly 1,000 people have been arrested and charged with crimes related to the Capitol riot, including six Idaho residents. Among them were:
- Josiah Colt, a Boise man, pleaded guilty in July to one felony count of obstruction of an official proceeding. Colt was sentenced to 15 months in prison. He was photographed sitting in then-Vice President Mike Pence’s seat during the riot.
- Pamela Hemphill, a Boise woman, was in the Capitol during the riot. She was sentenced to two months in jail and three years of probation for one misdemeanor count of demonstrating in a Capitol building.
- Duke Wilson, of Nampa, received more than four years in prison after he admitted to hitting at least one police officer with a pipe, assisting other rioters in attempting to pull a defensive shield away from a police officer, and pushing an officer to the ground.
RELATED | Six Idahoans were charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Here’s where their cases stand