The Alabama High School Athletic Association has a new all-time wins leader in high school basketball.
Deshler’s Jana Killen won her 920th game Tuesday night as her Tigers raced past Hatton 77-33. She moved ahead of former R.C. Hatch boys coach Eugene Mason in wins for a boys or girls basketball coach in Alabama.
Read MoreThe Philadelphia Eagles play the Washington Commanders in the NFC Championship Game on Sunday for a spot in Super Bowl LIX. But the NFL team already is working on next season’s roster.
On Tuesday, the Eagles signed former Alabama tight end Cameron Latu to a reverse/future contract. He was among three Crimson Tide alumni to sign reserve/future contracts on Tuesday, with guard Darrian Dalcourt signing with the Baltimore Ravens and cornerback Anthony Averett signing with the Houston Texans.
A player signed to a reserve/future contract can be added to an NFL team’s roster when it expands from 53 to 90 players for the offseason on March 12, the first day of the NFL’s 2025 business year. The newly signed players become eligible to participate in offseason workouts, minicamps and OTAs as team members.
Only players who aren’t on NFL active rosters can sign reserve/future contracts.
Averett and Dalcourt finished the 2024 season on the practice squad of the team they signed with, which is overwhelmingly the case for reserve/future signees.
But that wasn’t true for Latu. The tight end spent all but two weeks of the 2024 season on the practice squad of the Cleveland Browns after being waived by the San Francisco 49ers at the end of the preseason.
A third-round pick of the 49ers in the 2023 NFL Draft, Latu has not played in an NFL regular-season game. Latu sustained a meniscus injury in San Francisco’s final preseason game in 2023. He spent the entire season on injured reserve as he had two knee surgeries.
Joining Dalcourt in moving from the practice squad to a reserve/future contract with the Ravens was wide receiver Malik Cunningham.
A star quarterback at Park Crossing High School in Montgomery, Cunningham played QB at Louisville and the Reese’s Senior. The New England Patriots signed Cunningham with the stated intention of converting him to wide receiver, but he also worked at quarterback for New England. He made the full conversion with Baltimore this season.
FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.
Read MoreIf any question remained as to whether Nick Saban will ever return to college football, the former Alabama football squashed it. During an appearance on the Pivot Podcast, which features former NFL players Ryan Clark, Fred Taylor and Channing Crowder, who played for Saban with the Miami Dolphins, the man who won six national titles in Tuscaloosa said he would prefer the pro game now.
“If I was going to coach today, based on the circumstances in college and in the NFL, I would coach in the NFL, because all those things in college have changed,” Saban said on the show, which was released Tuesday. “The whole idea of what college used to be is not there anymore. It used to be, you went to college to develop value for your future. Now, people are going to college to see how much money they can make.
“And I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that, but you change the whole dynamic of the importance of getting an education, making good decisions and choices about what you do and what you don’t do to create value for your future. You changed that whole dynamic.”
Saban coached the Dolphins for two seasons in between college stints. He left LSU to take the Miami job, before opting to return to the college ranks with the Crimson Tide.
He retired in January of 2024 after 17 seasons in Tuscaloosa. Saban didn’t stop working long, quickly joining ESPN as an analyst on College Gameday.
Saban said on the Pivot Podcast that the current state of college football has changed since his career began.
“I’ve got NFL coaches calling me complaining about these guys have no ability to sustain and persevere and overcome adversity because they’ve never had to do it,” Saban said. “They just pack up and leave as soon as something doesn’t go their way. That’s what I always enjoyed about college, developing those things that help guys be successful.
“Now, the system has changed where that’s not even possible anymore. And I think the players should get paid in college, I just think the system that we’re doing it in is not really beneficial to them and their development in the future.”
Read MoreKirk Herbstreit called it a “perfect storm of emotion” a day after he went viral for crying on an ESPN broadcast following Ohio State’s CFP national championship win over Notre Dame.
The college football analyst joined “The Pat McAfee Show,” and was asked about the moment.
Herbstreit revealed it was a tough personal year for his family.
His wife, Alison, was diagnosed with breast cancer. His dog, Ben, died after becoming a national treasure during “GameDay” broadcast. In addition, Herbstreit’s son, Zak, an Ohio State football player, had heart failure two years ago and had to medically retire. He took on a graduate assistant role for the team, and Kirk Herbstreit saw his son – in jersey – celebrating the national title.
“It’s been a tough year for me behind the scenes,” Kirk Herbstreit said.
Herbstreit, who played quarterback at Ohio State from 1989 to 1993, said Ohio State and coach Ryan Day faced adversity all season.
“They went to hell and back. We can try to make this sound soft, but my thing is, I talk to these players. I talk to these coaches. I know what they faced after that Michigan game,” Herbstreit told Scott Van Pelt after the game. “I know the pain, and I know that a lot of people thought, ‘The hell with this guy. Who else can be the guy?’ … (Ryan Day) just handled it, took the high road and didn’t say anything.
“He went out, got his team ready to play four games, and they won it. And I think that’s why I’m emotional.”
As a result, emotion got the best of Kirk Herbstreit.
“It was perfect storm of emotions of a lot of stuff going through my head,” he told McAfee. “Looking down and seeing my son. My wife is in the booth with me. It was a lot.”
Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim. He can be heard on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily.
Read MoreA 32-year-old man has been sentenced to life without parole in the brazen 2017 killing of a trial witness outside the Montgomery County Courthouse
Josephus Boone was convicted last week in the in the shooting death of 31-year-old Kelvin Cooley, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced Tuesday.
Cooley was killed shortly after he testified against Boone’s brother, Jacquees Boone, who was on trial for the attempted murder of Cooley’s brother.
A jury on Thursday convicted Boone of capital murder and discharging a firearm into an occupied building following an eight-day trial.
Circuit Judge Brooke Reid sentenced Boone based on the jury’s verdict to impose a life without parole sentence, Marshall said.
The shooting happened at 4:33 p.m. Monday, Oct. 23, 2017, in the 300 block of Lawrence Street, just outside the Montgomery County Courthouse.
Kelvin Cooley was pronounced dead at 3:45 a.m. Tuesday at Baptist Medical South.
Former Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey told Al.com at the time that following Kelvin Cooley’s testimony, two armed investigators walked Kelvin Cooley to his car parked outside the courthouse. Cooley got into his vehicle, pulled off and moments later the gunfire erupted.
“The investigators actually witnessed it,’’ Bailey said at the time. “As we have learned in the city and throughout the country, there are people who just don’t care. It’s pure evil, and it’s everywhere.”
Trial testimony showed that Boone fired 17 shots from his vehicle at Cooley.
Two of those 17 shots struck First Baptist Church, with one of them going through a window, into a room, and through a hallway before being lodged in a door frame inside the church
Church staff members were in the building at the time of the shooting, but not injured.
“Justice was served today,” Marshall said Tuesday. “Josephus Boone murdered Kelvin Cooley in broad daylight, endangering numerous citizens in downtown Montgomery while attempting to intimidate and undermine our very system of justice.”
“His violent disregard for life extended beyond his intended victim, as he recklessly fired into the historic First Baptist Church, placing even more lives at risk,’’ Marshall said. “Boone will now serve the rest of his life in prison for his violent acts.”
Cooley’s shooting death was the latest act of violence in a series of disputes between the Cooley and Boone families that went back years, court records show, in a feud that ultimately left one person from each family paralyzed by gunfire and then Kelvin Cooley dead.
On March 29, 2014, according to court records, Jacquees Boone, now 27, shot Alondre Cooley, who was Kevin Cooley’s brother. In that case, police say Alondre Cooley was walking down the street when Jacquees Boone drove up next to him in a vehicle and fired, striking Cooley in the face and leaving him paralyzed. Alondre Cooley had no criminal record, but authorities have said he was targeted because of some of his family members.
Just two days after that shooting, records show, Kelvin Cooley shot Jacquees Boone — apparently in retaliation for his brother’s shooting. Records show Kelvin Cooley fired into a 2004 Ford, striking Jacquees Boone in the back. As a result, Jacquees Boone was also paralyzed.
Jacquees Boone was convicted of attempted murder in February 2015 and sentenced to life in prison under the state’s habitual offender laws, but the Alabama Supreme Court in 2016 reversed the court’s judgement and the defendant’s new trial began this week.
The following month – in March 2015 – Kelvin Cooley pleaded guilty to first-degree assault in the wounding of Jacquees Boone. He was sentenced to 9 1/2 years in prison with two years to serve followed by probation.
Read MoreAlabama football landed at No. 17 in the final coaches poll top 25 of the 2024 season. The Crimson Tide finished off Kalen DeBoer’s first season 9-4 after losing the ReliaQuest Bowl to Michigan.
Five coaches left UA out of the top 25 entirely. DeBoer, also a voter in the poll, put his team a bit higher than the average.
Alabama’s coach placed the Crimson Tide at No. 15, according to USA Today’s reveal of every coach’s ballot. Teams DeBoer placed ahead of Alabama included SMU and Indiana, both squads UA fans were unhappy made the College Football Playoff over UA.
The season came to an end with Ohio State winning the national championship over Notre Dame Monday in Atlanta. The 2024 season was the first that featured a 12-team playoff, which Alabama was the first team out of, doomed by regular-season losses to Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Oklahoma.
DeBoer ranked Tennessee No. 7, after the Volunteers lost in the first round of the CFP to Ohio State. He did not put Vanderbilt or Oklahoma in his top 25, and put Michigan at No. 22.
Russell Dan Alford turned 62 in federal prison.
The Hokes Bluff man was convicted in 2022 for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol, and spent a year at the federal penitentiary in Yazoo City, Mississippi.
Alford, who owns a body shop in Etowah County, was found guilty entering and remaining in a restricted building, violent entry and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a capitol building, all misdemeanor convictions.
He is one of at least 22 Alabama residents charged in the Capitol breach during a joint session of Congress which had convened to certify the electoral votes in the 2020 presidential election.
Alford is now one of at least 22 Alabama residents pardoned in President Donald Trump’s first day of office.
“It’s about time,’’ Alford told Al.com Tuesday. “If we would have lost the election, we probably would have gotten more prison time.”
Asked what the pardon means to him, Alford said, “Nothing. It cost me $20,000 to go to prison.”
Alford said he went to D.C. that day because he was tired of listening to the national news media and wanted to see the truth for himself.
He spent his time recording what he was seeing, and quickly posted it online to show others.
“That whole thing was a Broadway play,’’ Alford said of the Jan. 6 events. “They created the whole thing, and I told the FBI that in my statement. It was all scripted.”
“I was there to officially observe,’’ Alford said. “I basically did a year in prison for nothing.”
“I’m not bitter,’’ he said. “I just want people to do their damn jobs. The whole government is so corrupt it’s ridiculous.”
Kaleb Dillard, 26, was arrested Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022, on felony and misdemeanor charges for his actions during the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Federal Court Records)
Kaleb Dillard, 29, also was sentenced to the prison in Yazoo City.
Dillard is a graduate of Briarwood Christian High School and served in the U.S. Marines for five years as a videographer and public affairs correspondent. He also attended Samford University.
Dillard, who works in property management, pleaded guilty to one count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers.
He was sentence to 10 months, serving seven in Yazoo City, and the remainder at a halfway house.
He was released in September 2024.
Dillard was accused of illegally entering the Capitol and using a metal tool to smash a window of the doors.
Charging documents said an officer who was attempting to close the doors and stop rioters from entering when Dillard grabbed the officer’s protective vest from behind and threw the officer backward onto the marble floor.
He said he was trying to fight his way out of the crown and got pulled in on a wave of people.
He said he didn’t think, he just acted when he grabbed the officer by the vest. He told 1819 News he apologized to the officer and tried to help him get up.
Dillard acknowledges that was federal assault, by definition.
He said he didn’t go there to protest and said he and the others arrested that day were treated unjustly and persecuted.
Kaleb Dillard, 26, was arrested Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022, on felony and misdemeanor charges for his actions during the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Federal Court Records)
The entire ordeal, he said, led him to his now-wife, and brought him closer to family and friends.
Dillard said he’s thankful for the pardon.
“It means a lot. I’m just really thankful to have my rights back,’’ Dillard said. “That’s probably the biggest thing.”
“It can’t give me my time back,’’ he said, “but God’s been really good through all of this.”
Dillard plans to write a book about his experience.
Here’s a look at the other Alabamians charged and pardoned.
At least two of them, who had not yet gone to trial, had their cases dismissed by the U.S. government on Monday.
Robert James Bonham, a 44-year-old Shelby County man, was arrested just over one month ago, and now he is a free man.
Bonham was charged with felony assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers and obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder. The Wilsonville man was also charged with several misdemeanor offenses.
Federal officials alleged Bonham was armed with a flagpole bearing an American flag during the siege while the joint session of Congress was underway to certify the vote count of the Electoral College in the 2020 presidential election.
He was accused of trying to stab a law enforcement officer with that flagpole.
Bonham allegedly raised the flagpole and thrust it forward toward an officer in an apparent attempt to stab him. Body-worn camera footage showed the flagpole making contact with the officer, constituting a forcible assault and obstructing the officer’s duties.
After the alleged attack, the officer reacted immediately, grabbing the flagpole with his left hand, prompting a physical struggle with Bonham as the officer tried to disarm him.
Court documents say that additional officers moved in to assist, ordering Bonham to release the weapon.
Despite multiple commands to “let it go,” authorities say Bonham refused, shouting, “No”
A tense standoff ensued until Bonham regained control of the flagpole and returned to the mob, records stated.
He was taken into custody by FBI agents in Shelby County in December 2024.
Federal prosecutors in D.C. on Monday filed a motion to dismiss the charges against Bonham, citing the presidential pardon, and that dismissal was granted.
Joshua James, a U.S. Army veteran from Arab, was the first person charged in the U.S. Capitol riot to plead guilty seditious conspiracy – the most serious crime from Jan. 6 breach.
Federal authorities described the 37-year-old James as the regional leader in charge of the Alabama chapter of the Oath Keepers.
The Oath Keepers are a large but loosely organized collection of individuals, some of whom are associated with militias. Though the Oath Keepers will accept anyone as members, they explicitly focus on recruiting current and former military, law enforcement, and first-responder personnel.
The seditious conspiracy indictment alleged that, following the Nov. 3, 2020, presidential election, James other co-defendants and others conspired to oppose by force the execution of the laws governing the transfer of presidential power by Jan. 20, 2021.
In his guilty plea, James admitted that, from November 2020 through January 2021, he conspired with other Oath Keeper members and affiliates to use force to prevent, hinder and delay the execution of the laws of the United States governing the transfer of presidential power. He used encrypted and private communications, equipped himself with a variety of weapons, donned combat and tactical gear, and was prepared to answer a call to take up arms.
James is a U.S. Army combat veteran who reportedly received the Purple Heart. He owns a cleaning company called America Pro Hydro Services.
In December 2024, James received probation.
Dillon Colby Herrington (Federal Court Records)
Dillon Colby Herrington, of Madison, pleaded guilty in 2023 to one count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers.
Herrington was sentenced to 37 months in prison.
Federal prosecutors are seeking to dismiss charges against a north Alabama man who was arrested in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, breach at the U.S. Capitol in January.
Herrington, who lived in Madison and formerly served in the U.S. Army, was arrested in June 2021.
Authorities said Herrington was wearing a camouflage pullover-style jacket with a distinguishable yellow patch on the left arm of the jacket, camouflage pants, a yellow scarf, and a red hat with the words “Make America Great Again,” according to the affidavit against Herrington.
Surveillance footage captured Herrington on two separate occasions attempting to strike members of law enforcement with objects.
He was seen throwing a wooden 4″x4″ piece of lumber in the direction of members of law enforcement. No officers were hit by the wood.
More footage captured Herrington standing near a metal electrical box. While standing near the electrical box, he appears to have an unknown object in his hands which he appears to throw in the direction of law enforcement, records stated.
While standing near the box, the individual took hold of a metal barricade and threw the barricade in the direction of law enforcement. No member of law enforcement was struck with the metal barricade.
Herrington since then has been indicted by a Limestone County grand jury on a charge of first-degree rape, court records showed.
Joshua Matthew Black, 48, of Leeds, was convicted in 2023 of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, unlawful possession of a dangerous weapon on capitol grounds or buildings, entering and remaining on the floor of congress, and disorderly conduct in a capitol building.
Black was sentenced to 20 months in prison.
Authorities said Black entered the Capitol and was captured in photographs and on video, posted to social media sites, standing on the floor of the Senate chamber.
“Black later posted a video to YouTube in which he discussed entering the Capitol and the floor of the Senate chamber on Jan. 6, 2021,” the Justice Department said. “He explained that ‘once we found out Pence turned on us and that they had stolen the election, like officially, the . . . crowd went crazy. I mean, . . . it became a mob. We crossed the gate, we got up.’ He also admitted carrying a knife to the Capitol because ‘you’re not allowed to carry guns in DC and I don’t like being defenseless.’”
Black, who ran a lawn care service in Moody, was seen on video and in photos of the Jan. 6 riot, wearing a red hat, camouflage jacket and yellow gloves. He appeared to be bleeding from the left cheek, and later said he was trying to protect a police officer, or police officers, during the breach.
Joshua Matthew Black, of Leeds, was identified being in the crowd of protesters that breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Federal Court Documents)
Dylan Bowling and Marissa Lee Bowling, both of Loxley, pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct on capitol grounds and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in any of the capitol buildings.
The couple in July 2024 was sentenced to two years of federal probation.
Videos obtained from YouTube and TikTok show who investigators believe to be Marissa in a dark stocking cap, light pink jacket, dark pants and a black backpack while Dylan is believed to be shown wearing a stocking cap, dark jacket, dark pants, goggles and a camouflage backpack.
An image taken from CCTV video footage is part of evidence investigators are using to show Dylan and Marissa Bowling allegedly walking through the House Wing of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 in Washington D.C.
Photo and video evidence show two people believed to be the couple entering the U.S. Capitol building through a broken window near the Senate wing door, according to court documents.
After being in the building for about 21 minutes, the couple exited through the same broken window, investigators said.
Phillip Andrew Bromley, of Sterrett, pleaded guilty to one count of disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds.
Bromley, a veteran and a nurse anesthetist from Sterrett, was sentenced to three months in prison.
According to court records, Bromley was standing eight feet from Air Force veteran Ashli E. Babbitt, 35, when she was shot and killed during the chaotic events that Wednesday.
FBI Special Agent William Novak stated in federal charging documents that Bromley was shown on video footage published by on the ProPublica website under “What Parler Saw During the Attack on the Capitol.” The website contains numerous videos that appear to have been recorded on Jan. 6 in and around the Capitol building.
One of the videos was titled “4:26 p.m. Near Capitol” and shows a man who identified himself as Phillip Bromley chronicling the events he witnessed that day. “Listen,’’ he tells the man recording him, “everybody needs to know the truth.”
“It is important to note that Phillip was not involved in any violence and actually dissuaded one such individual from further violence on January 6th,’’ his attorneys previously said. “He also rendered medical aid to those who were injured. Phillip admits that he got caught up in the moment and has learned a valuable lesson from this process and looks forward to having this behind him.”
Lonnie Coffman, a Vietnam War veteran who served in the U.S. Army, pleaded guilty to possession of an unregistered firearm and carrying a pistol without a license. He was charged following the seizure of nearly a dozen Molotov cocktail explosive devices from his pickup truck, as well as a number of guns, ammo and concerning handwritten notes.
At the age of 72, the Falkville man in 2022 was sentenced to three years and 10 months in federal prison.
He was carrying a loaded handgun and revolver without a license as he walked in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, according to prosecutors. He isn’t accused of entering the Capitol or joining the mob during the riot that day.
When Coffman parked his truck a few blocks from the Capitol on the morning of Jan. 6, it contained a handgun, a rifle, a shotgun, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, a crossbow, machetes, a stun gun and a cooler containing eleven mason jars with holes punched in the lids, according to prosecutors. Each jar contained a mixture of gasoline and Styrofoam, which are components of the homemade incendiary devices called Molotov cocktails, prosecutors said.
Law enforcement officers found the cache of weapons and ammunition when they searched Coffman’s truck
Larry Freligh III, of Auburn, pleaded guilty to one count of disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds.
Freligh was sentenced to four months in prison.
Freligh, in a 2021 interview with FBI agents, admitted to entering the U.S. Capitol that day. He said he and another man drove from Alabama to D.C. on Jan. 5, 2021, for President Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally.
He told agents that he brought with him a black backpack containing a spare set of clothes and a
hunting knife with an estimated six-inch blade. He said he left the backpack, including the hunting knife inside it, inside his vehicle while at the Capitol.
After the two attended the rally, which took place near the Ellipse area of the White House grounds, Freligh and his friend walked to the U.S. Capitol grounds, where he said they witnessed people getting tear gassed and pepper sprayed by the police. Freligh said he had been following Alex Jones online that day, and Jones had directed people to go to the Capitol.
Mark Grods, of Mobile, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding. Grods in 2024, was sentenced to 36 months in prison, and cooperated with investigators.
Authorities said Grods stormed the U.S. Capitol with members of the Oath Keepers extremist group.
Authorities said members of the Oath Keepers came to Washington intent on stopping the peaceful transition of power and were ready to use violence if necessary. Prosecutors have said members of the group prepared in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6 as if they were heading to war and dressed that day in battle gear, like helmets and tactical vests.
Kari Dawn Kelley, a 40-year-old Mobile woman, is facing federal charges in the Jan 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. (Federal Court Records)
Kari Dawn Kelley, of Mobile, pleaded guilty to one count of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.
Kelly, at the time of arrest a 40-year-old insurance adjuster, was sentenced to three years of probation.
Kelly, a mother, was among the crowd that forced its way into the building while the joint session of Congress was underway to certify the Electoral College vote count.
According to the criminal complaint filed against her, the FBI on Jan. 21, 2021, became aware that Kelley had been inside the Capitol. Kelly was seen in footage climbing through an open window and was present in the Senate wing of the building.
The footage time stamp was 2:56 p.m. It showed her in a ponytail, a cream-colored scarf and a hooded Adidas sweatshirt. Kelly was seen recording the events on her cell phone. The FBI said they verified Kelley’s identity through database checks.
Christian Matthew Manley, of Elkmont, pleaded guilty to one count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon.
Manley was sentenced to 50 months in federal prison.
The government claimed videos showed Manley in a tunnel, trying to breach the Capitol. The video showed the man wearing cargo pants and a tactical jacket twice using pepper spray on officers, then using those empty cans as projectiles The video shows the man throwing a metal rod at police protecting the building.
At one point, the man exits the tunnel and waves for more of the crowd to join the protesters in attempting to breach the building.
The videos from both protestors and from Capitol security then show the man making his way to the front of the mob inside the tunnel to get inside the building. The government alleges Manley reached the front, using his body trying to force open the last door to the Capitol while law enforcement tried to hold back the rioters.
“He was leading the charge, so to speak,” a judge said.
Manley served with the Marines for four years but received a less-than-honorable discharge, the judge said.
Manley moved from Alabama to Alaska. He was a commercial fisherman when the FBI arrested him as he arrived at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.
Jonathan Walden, of Birmingham, was charged with conspiracy and conspiracy to obstruct the certification process, and misdemeanor trespass.
Federal prosecutors on Monday dismissed the charges against Walden following Trumps blanket pardon. He was part of the Oath Keepers conspiracy case.
They said he helped to plot the breach and touted his qualifications for joining the group’s “quick reaction force” as being a former firefighter and EMT and having an 82-pound German Shepherd named “‘Warrior” who is trained for security control.
Sometime before Jan. 5, 2021, authorities said, Walden sent a message to co-defendant Joshua James expressing his interest in joining the quick reaction force team.
His message to James read, “I am interested in the QRF team in D.C. I am a former Firefighter, EMT-B and have a K-9 trained for security patrol (82 ib. German Shepherd named “Warrior”) I have a Jump Bag with Trauma supplies and have ALL the necessary 2A gear that the situation may require. PLEASE ADVISE. As soon as I hear from you I can hit the road and join up! Jonathan Walden.” He provided James with his phone number.”
Anthony Michael Mazzio, of Midland City, pleaded guilty to one count of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.
Mazzio received 46 months probation.
Prosecutors obtained several photos showing Mazzio carrying a Trump flag inside the Capitol.
He wore a M81 camouflage jacket, dark colored hooded sweatshirt underneath, black tactical vest, gas mask, gas mask carrier secured to his belt, camouflage pants, and boots..
Gregory Lamar Nix, of Cleveland, pleaded guilty to one count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon or inflicting bodily injury.
Nix was sentenced to 42 months in prison.
According to court documents, Nix was captured on video about 2:21 p.m. that day banging the end of a white flagpole against the East House Doors in an attempt to breach the U.S. Capitol building.
Approximately six minutes later, Nix physically assaulted an officer with the U.S. Capitol Police, striking him with the flagpole and then thrusting and throwing the object at him, federal authorities contend.
A few minutes later, at approximately 2:30 p.m., Nix attempted to smash the East House Doors’ glass panes with a black baton. He subsequently entered the building.
Bobby Wayne Russell, of Falkville, pleaded guilty to one count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers.
Russell was among rioters confronting officers at a line of bicycle barricades on the southwest side of the Capitol grounds.
Russell, wearing a hooded “Alabama Crimson Tide” sweatshirt resisted police orders to move away.
Russell resisted officers’ efforts to get him to back away from the barricade. He held a section of bike rack pressed between his upper arm and side, clinging to it despite being sprayed with OC spray.
When the barricade broke apart due to the involvement of other rioters, Russell grabbed the jacket of a Metropolitan Police Department officer, pulling the officer down with him as he fell headlong down a short flight of stairs.
Later that day, at approximately 4:20 pm, law enforcement officers formed a line and attempted to clear the area near the Senate wing doors. Russell refused orders to leave the area and pushed his back and buttocks into the riot shields of several officers.
He then turned around to face one officer and declared, “There’s more of us than you guys, you’re gonna lose.”
Bryan Shawn Smith (Federal Court Documents)
Bryan Shawn Smith, of Madison, was convicted civil disorder, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, inflicting bodily Injury on certain officers and aiding and abetting, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings.
Smith was sentenced to 52 months in federal prison.
He was arrested in Huntsville on Dec. 4, 2022.
Smith was on the lower west terrace of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 and was captured on police body camera footage confronting officers at a security barricade, the U.S. Department of Justice said, citing court documents in the case.
As rioters breached the terrace’s barricades, a group of officers fell back behind a door underneath the inaugural stage scaffolding. About 45 seconds later, the door was opened, and Smith held the door open and refused an officer’s order to step away from the doorway to allow the officer to close it, prosecutors said
William Wright Watson, of Auburn, was found guilty by the Court after agreeing to a stipulated set of facts of obstruction of an official proceeding and entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a dangerous weapon.
Federal court records did not reflect a sentence.
Watson told federal agents he went to D.C. on Jan. 5. He said he and a friend left Auburn about 7 p.m. and arrived in D.C. about 6:30 a.m. He said he went to “support the patriots, support Trump, support freedom.”
“I guess the overriding thing for why we were there that day is because they were certifying the fraudulent election that day, and so we, to protest that,” Watson said.
Watson said he was in an area south of the White House when he saw others walking toward the Capitol and began to follow them. He worked his way to the front of the crowd at the stage which had been set up on the west side of the Capitol for the upcoming presidential inauguration.
He said he had been directed by radio show host Alex Jones, who operates the website InfoWars, to meet at the Capitol at 1 p.m. Watson told the agent he had a taser but had left it in the car.
He approached the Capitol and then began banging on windows “trying to get people to hear me,’’ he said. He eventually entered the building through a broken window. At some point, Watson said, he was in a hallway with others from the crowd and they encountered police. Some of the protesters, he said had shields and batons and one man was dressed like a Viking with spear.
Asked by the agent whether he had received guidance or direction from others to cause violence or criminal activity, Watson replied, “No, it was kind of just what the mob was doing. I was, I was there, helping push on their backs.” He said he had no prior knowledge the event would turn violent and that, in hindsight, he would have stayed back “from the area where people were charging at.”
A search warrant of Watson’s home turned up a yellow sweatshirt matching photographs taken of Watson inside the Capitol. In that picture, Watson is standing with Jacob Anthony Angeli Chansley, the so-called “QAnon Shaman,” widely seen in photos of the breach.
The agent said that a Capitol police officer reported that when he asked if anyone in the crowd had weapons, the man in the yellow sweatshirt – now identified as Watson – showed him a can of pepper spray. He was asked to hand it over, but he did not. The officer stated the man was “quiet and reserved and helped (police) to try to calm the crowd.”
The agent said Watson was seen on video fiddling with the cannister. Later, he said, Watson was seen holding the canister in the direction of police officers. In a second interview with federal agents – on Jan. 15 – Watson admitted to having the pepper spray. He said someone had given it to him, but he had no idea how to work it.
Watson told the agent he was scared and didn’t know what was going on at that point and that he never figured out how to use the mace. During the second interview, he also admitted to having a pocketknife on his waistband. He said he used the several-inches-long “flip box cutter” to cut down cloth around the inauguration scaffolding so the crowd could progress.
Donnie Duane Wren, of Athens, was convicted of civil disorder, assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds.
Wren was sentences to 12 months in prison.
His cousin Thomas Harlen Smith, 45, of Mathiston, Miss., was sentenced to nine years in prison and 36 months of supervised release.
According to evidence presented during the trial, Smith traveled from his Mississippi home and picked up Wren. They continued on to Washington, D.C., to attend a rally held by former President Trump on the day electoral votes in the 2020 presidential election were to be certified by Congress.
On the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, Smith and Wren attended the rally and afterward made their way toward the U.S. Capitol building. Before entering Capitol grounds, Smith climbed a column near the African American History Museum with the former Mississippi state flag containing the Confederate battle emblem.
Arriving on the Capitol grounds, Smith and Wren saw other rioters climbing scaffolding erected around the stage for the Presidential Inauguration. They then climbed and made their way to the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace Tunnel.
Smith pushed toward the front of a group of rioters and used a flagpole like a spear five times to try to break a window next to the Lower West Terrace doors. He then surged through the doorway, where he and a mass of other rioters pushed into a line of Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers attempting to hold the door shut.
According to prosecutors, Smith exited the tunnel and reunited with Wren, where they posed for a photograph together on the Lower West Terrace. Smith and Wren then climbed up a railing to the Upper West Terrace and confronted a line of police officers with riot shields and attempting to clear the area.
The two men pushed back against the police line, placing their hands on the officer’s shields and leaning back into the police. Wren leaned all his weight into the riot shield, preventing the police officer from advancing as police attempted to clear the area.
While this occurred, Smith witnessed an object fly past him and hit an officer. Smith yelled at the officer, “You deserve that, you piece of s—!” At 4:35 p.m., Smith kicked an MPD officer in the back—sending the officer to the ground. Smith picked up a metal pole-like object and threw it toward the line of police, striking two MPD officers in the head.
Later that day, on Facebook, Smith described the assault on the Capitol: “Patriots stood together and battled the tyrannical cops throughout the entire afternoon.”
Read MoreFreezing temperatures have prompted a high demand for electricity as Alabama is in the midst of days of temperatures in the teens and single digits.
READ MORE: Alabama’s coldest night of winter possible tonight: Single-digit lows expected
Very cold temperatures have been reported throughout Alabama with some parts of the state staying in the 20s all day Tuesday. Overnight could be even colder with temperatures dropping into the single digits across north Alabama.
READ MORE: Alabama freeze: TVA asks north Alabama to conserve power, particularly during these hours
The extreme cold prompted the Tennessee Valley Authority to ask users to conserve power, specifically during the periods of highest demand between 6 a.m.-10 a.m.
What can you do to conserve energy?
Here are TVA’s suggestions for conserving energy:
READ MORE: How many faucets you should drip in freezing weather? How to protect outdoor faucets
Other heating tips
READ MORE: Which way should your ceiling fan turn in the winter to keep a room warm?
Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard always has made his faith a focal point in everything he does.
Moments after the Irish fell to Ohio State 34-23 in the College Football Playoff national championship, the Fairhope, Alabama, native made the most of his platform, and his comments went viral.
Leonard and Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman were asked what they learned about the program this season and what they might be in position to do as a result.
RELATED: Here’s what Leonard pointed to on wristband after TD run
“Before I answer your question, I want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for giving me the opportunity to play in this game. I wrote on my hand Proverbs 27:17, ‘As iron sharpens iron, so shall one man sharpen another.’
“I think, as I said throughout the week, us and Ohio State were the two teams who praised Jesus Christ the most, and I think that we strengthened each other in our faiths through coming to this game and competing against each other.”
In the end, Leonard said he was content to see the Buckeyes win the national championship.
“I’m happy to see godly men come out on top no matter what the circumstance is,” he said. “I’m very happy to praise Jesus in the lowest of lows, as well.”
Leonard accounted for three touchdowns, passing for 255 yards with two scores. He ran for 40 yards with a touchdown on 17 carries.
Leonard was the workhorse on a monstrous 18-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to open the game. Riley had nine carries for 34 yards, including a 1-yard scoring run, in the drive which lasted 9 minutes, 45 seconds.
Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim. He can be heard on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily.
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