JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Neptune Beach man was sentenced to prison Friday on two felony charges regarding during the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Daniel Paul Gray, 43, was sentenced to 30 months in prison, 36 months of supervised release, and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution by a federal judge. Gray pleaded guilty to two felony charges of obstruction of an official proceeding and assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers on Oct. 25, 2023.
According to court documents, in the days leading up to the disrupted joint session of the U.S. Congress to ascertain and count the electoral votes following the 2020 presidential election on Jan. 6, 2021, Gray, was active on social media expressing his distrust of the 2020 presidential election results and his eagerness to prevent President Joseph Biden from assuming office, the Department of Justice said.
Gray's lawyer argued his phone was stolen and he was "entrapped" in the riot.
On Dec. 12, 2020, Gray, a former Mixed Marital Arts instructor and bartender, posted to Facebook a screenshot of the Wikipedia page for the Insurrection Act of 1807, and then captioned the picture with, “Shits about to get lit y’all. I’m actually really excited at the possibility of the insurrection act being implemented.”
On Jan. 6, 2021, Gray attended the rally and made his way to a restricted area of the Capitol building on the West Plaza steps around 2:25 p.m. Investigators said Gray entered the Capitol through the Upper West Terrace doors at 2:41 p.m. He "engaged in confrontations against law enforcement officers attempting to prevent rioters from entering the Rotunda," the DOJ said.
At approximately 2:58 p.m., Gray was at the front of the mob when he approached an officer. The officer told him several times to back up, then pushed Gray back with his baton. Gray shoved the officer, making contact with the officer’s baton and knocking the officer off balance causing the officer to fall down the marble staircase and suffer a concussion and chronic back pain. he and other rioters were steered out of the building by 3:12 p.m., according to court documents.
Investigators said Gray later posted a 4-minute video to his Instagram account boasting about his actions during the events of Jan. 6. In that clip, Gray said: “We start pushing the police out the back of the Capitol; we pushed them from the front to the back of the Capitol” and bragged about pushing police down a staircase.
He later wrote, “Dude we literally took Congress over. I don’t wanna say too much more lol was the rowdiest thing I’ve ever done and you know me lol.” and “Lol I was one of the first in the capital.”
The FBI arrested Gray on May 18, 2021, in Jacksonville. He was originally indicted in 2021 on nine counts, with penalties that could top 20 years.
The FBI's Jacksonville and Washington Field Offices investigated this case. The U.S. Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department provided valuable assistance.
In the 37 months since the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection, more than 1,300 people have been charged for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including more than 469 people charged with felony assaulting or impeding law enforcement.
