Cedar Rapids man convicted in Jan. 6 riot at U.S. Capitol resentenced to time served

A Cedar Rapids man who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol and was sentenced to more than two years in federal prison was resentenced Tuesday to time served.

Leo Christopher Kelly, 39, was convicted of obstruction of an official proceeding, a felony, which carries up to a 20-year sentence, along with six other charges, including unlawfully entering and remaining on restricted grounds and in the Capitol; unlawfully engaging in disorderly and disruptive conduct on restricted grounds and in the Capitol; and unlawfully entering and remaining on the floor of Congress.

U.S. District of Columbia Judge Royce Lamberth sentenced Kelly in August 2023 to 30 months in prison.

This past June, the U.S. Supreme Court limited the prosecution’s use of the obstruction charge. The justices ruled 6-3 that the charge of obstruction of an official proceeding must include proof that a defendant attempted to tamper with or destroy documents.

After that ruling, lawyers appealed Kelly’s obstruction conviction, but Lamberth refused to release him pending the outcome of that appeal.

The appeals court eventually agreed to vacate Kelly’s conviction on the obstruction charge.

Kelly was then mistakenly released from prison in September. He was “inadvertently released” after a “misinterpretation of a court order,” the federal Bureau of Prisons told the Associated Press at the time.

Kelly was placed on pretrial release, and he went back to court for resentencing Tuesday on the other six convictions, according to court documents. Lamberth, in an order from November, said Kelly may still have to serve 30 months if he stacked those convictions consecutively, but on Tuesday the judge ruled Kelly would be sentenced to time served — about 11 months.

Kelly also was ordered to serve 12 months of supervised release following his prison term and pay a $5,000 fine and $500 in restitution.

Kelly, who described himself as an independent during an interview with The Gazette after the riot, said he just followed the mob into the Senate chamber as they invaded the Capitol in an attempt to stop lawmakers from certifying the 2020 election.

Kelly, who worked at his family-owned business as a broker of internet services, said he had no malicious intent. He didn't feel like part of a coup attempt.

“I wasn't armed,” he said in the 2021 interview. “I didn't intend to destroy anything, and I didn't destroy anything.”

Kelly’s admission in The Gazette interview and with LifeSiteNews, a nonprofit conservative website, that he was one of the first people to enter the Capitol, helped lead an FBI investigator to him, according to court documents. Kelly also was identified through a video recorded by the New Yorker magazine.

Kelly was part of the crowd that forced its way into the U.S. Senate chamber, and he approached the dais where then-Vice President Mike Pence had just presided over the Senate. Kelly took videos of documents on Pence’s and others’ desks.

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