A former Virginia cop was found guilty Monday of all six charges he faced in connection with the Jan. 6 insurrection after his onetime friend and fellow ex-cop told a jury that they hoped to "overturn" the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Thomas Robertson was off duty from his job at the Rocky Mount Police Department when he joined the mob that stormed the Capitol as lawmakers gathered to certify the election results. Robertson's conviction comes after his codefendant and fellow Rocky Mount cop Jacob Fracker testified for federal prosecutors after taking a plea deal last month.
Fracker told the jury that he and Robertson, whom he has described as a “father-figure” and “mentor,” hoped their actions would result in the election being "overturned," according to NBC News.
“I felt like we had maybe been heard by whoever it was we needed to be heard by,” Fracker said, NBC News reported.
Robertson was found guilty of six charges, including obstruction of an official proceeding for interfering with law enforcement officers doing their jobs at the Capitol, civil disorder, and entering a restricted building or grounds while carrying a deadly or dangerous weapon (in this case, a large wooden stick).
He was the second Jan. 6 defendant to face — and be convicted by — a jury and the fourth to go on trial. A Texas man accused of bringing a handgun into the Capitol was found guilty of five charges by a jury in March. Last week, a federal judge acquitted a New Mexico man of all counts following a bench trial after finding he “reasonably believed” that police officers let him in the building.
Robertson was fired from the Rocky Mount police department shortly after he was arrested and charged in January 2021, according to news reports. He was initially allowed to return home but was ordered back to jail a few months later after amassing an arsenal of firearms, in violation of his release conditions.
His sentencing hearing was not immediately scheduled following the announcement of the jury's verdict, according to the Associated Press.