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Left: Trial exhibits from the Justice Department show David Bowman, left, sitting on the floor of the Senate on Jan. 6 after riling through papers with co-defendant Christopher Carnell, right. Center: A text message where Bowman speaks in code about breaching the Capitol.
Two men who broke into the Capitol on Jan. 6 and proceeded to climb onto the Senate floor to rifle through fleeing lawmakers’ desks were found guilty of several criminal charges in a federal court in Washington, D.C., this week. One of the men wore to the riot a backpack with his name etched into it.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell rendered the ruling during a bench trial for Christopher Carnell, 21, of Cary, North Carolina, and David Bowman, 22, of Raleigh, North Carolina. The men had waived their right to a jury trial.
A paperless entry on the docket reviewed by Law&Crime on Tuesday states Carnell and Bowman were found guilty of felony obstruction of an official proceeding and a number of misdemeanor charges including: entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, entering and remaining on the floor of Congress, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.
They were released on their personal recognizance and are to appear before Howell for sentencing on June 14 — Flag Day.
Cornell and Bowman stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, climbing scaffolding before pushing through the Senate side door with fellow rioters inside. Crossing lines of overwhelmed police there and then in the Capitol crypt, they finally got inside the well of the Senate, where they and others rifled through lawmakers’ desks.
Video footage from the day and later utilized by prosecutors to bring the charges, depicted Carnell — identifiable by the bright white lettering of his surname embroidered into his backpack — in a damning exchange with another rioter.
When someone was heard rifling through papers and remarking that Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas was going to “sell us out all along — look!” Carnell could be heard in footage retorting: “Wait, no. That’s a good thing. He’s on our side. He’s with us.”
Cruz intended to object to the certification of the 2020 election.
The men exited the Capitol just before 3 p.m. and Bowman sent an excited text to a group chat he was in with Cornell and others around 4:19 p.m., records show. He boasted of how he “gave baked alaska” his sunglasses.
“Baked Alaska” is convicted Proud Boy Anthime Gionet. Bowman also snapped a photo with him.
The next day prosecutors said Bowman texted the group again, this time sending an image of a “signed letter from Senator Mitt Romney to then-Vice President Pence, which appears to have been taken while the photographer was on the floor of the U.S. Senate.”
Trial exhibits show David Bowman, left, with Nick Fuentes. This and other photos were found on a cellphone seized through a warrant. On the right, a photo found on the device shows a letter sent by Mitt Romney that prosecutors said Bowman sent a picture of to co-defendants in a group chat on Jan. 6, 2021.
The letter was a copy of Romney’s speech from a year earlier when he voted to impeach then-President Donald Trump the first time for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Evidence also showed that Bowman shared a news article on Jan. 8 featuring a shot from the Senate floor.
This and other messages were found on a phone belonging to Aiden Bilyard, another North Carolina man who was arrested in November 2021 and charged with unlawful conduct at the Capitol. His phone was seized with a warrant and during a search of it, prosecutors say they uncovered a group chat between Bilyard, Bowman and Carnell. Another individual with the name “Ethan” was also in the chat. Records show another participant in the chat was not identified at all.
The records showed the men talking about traveling from North Carolina to Washington, D.C., for Jan. 6 as well as for the pro-Trump Million MAGA March that November. Prosecutors say they men traded pictures, including smiling photos taken with white nationalist Nick Fuentes and, again, “Baked Alaska.”
By Jan. 3, Carnell and Bowman had made plans to drive to the nation’s capital.
Later, after the defendants ransacked the Capitol and relived the memories in a chat with Bilyard, prosecutors said Bowman boasted of his achievements.
When Bilyard asked him if he got ‘inside this cool Minecraft building?”” Bowman told him:
If it was buying textbooks for next semester, I would have hypothetically gotten into the book store and even walked the checkout floor where all the professors usually buy books and sometimes choose what books their students would read.
But no that was just a joke delete the chat because its funny.”
Notably, at the Proud Boys seditious conspiracy trial a year ago this month, prosecutors brought out reams of evidence including testimony from Proud Boys leader Jeremy Bertino, that showed how members spoke in code and would use the phrase “Minecraft” to discuss violence tongue-in-cheek.
David Bowman, left and Proud Boy “Baked Alaska.” DOJ trial exhibit.
During an interview with the FBI, Bilyard confirmed the chats with Bowman and Carnell. He said “Ethan” was a high school friend and when shown pictures of Bowman and Carnell, he was able to identify them for investigators. When the FBI got to Bowman, he identified himself and then he identified Carnell in photos.
A statement of facts prior to his conviction stated that Bowman claimed he did knot what was happening in the Senate before he got there, but that he “understood that Mike Pence needed to certify something in the House Chamber.”
He told investigators that when he and Carnell got on the Senate floor, they didn’t have an agenda.
“He stated, ‘like we are in here… like uh… we’re a dog, we caught the car, we don’t know what to do,’” he said.
A search warrant used to turn loose Bowman’s phone revealed pictures and video from inside the Capitol including footage of Carnell in the Rotunda and Bowman sitting at a Senator’s desk in the well of the Senate.
