A member of the pro-Trump mob who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 and declared “this is war” was sentenced to 45 days in jail on Wednesday.
Mariposa Castro, also known as Imelda Acosta, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton. She also received a $5,000 fine, NBC News reported.
“I’ve been reading a couple books about how civil war starts, and so much of history is repeating itself in our country,” Walton said. “I love this country, this country has been good to me, and to see what people are trying to do to this country… is just very concerning.”
Castro livestreamed the riot for about 40 minutes on her Facebook account including the part where she climbed through a broken window to enter the Capitol.
As she was entering the Capitol, she could be heard saying, “I’m going in. I’m going in the Capitol. We’re in! We’re inside the Capitol house. We got inside the Capitol.”
“War just started. It’s just the beginning. As Trump says, ‘the best is yet to come,’” Castro said, according to court documents. “It was so ugly. It got ugly in there. It got really ugly. I’m literally by myself. They told me not to be on my own, to find a crowd. And I’m by myself. That just shows how brave I am. If I can do this, you guys can do this.”
In another video as rioters, Castro among them, were forced out of the Capitol by law enforcement she could be heard saying: “It’s a civil war. We’re coming. … This is war.”
In court, a tearful Castro told the judge she “got caught up on the energy, and if I could go back and change things over, I definitely would have brought more peace.”
Castro pleaded guilty in November to unlawfully protesting. Prosecutors wanted her to be imprisoned for 60 days, arguing that she “eagerly joined the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the United States Capitol” and “exulted at the rioters’ success” by echoing the words of the former president as she was forced out of the Capitol, according to NBC News.
More than 740 individuals have been arrested in the Capitol riot case. 106 have been sentenced thus far.
