Fort Worth ‘Murder the Media’ man pleads guilty to crime committed in Jan. 6 Capitol riot
The Fort Worth man who wore a “Murder the Media” T-shirt and wrote that phrase on doors in the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021, has pleaded guilty to crimes connected to that day, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Nicholas DeCarlo, 32, traveled from Fort Worth to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5, 2021, and on the next day breached the Capitol Building with 36-year-old Nicholas Ochs, of Honolulu, according to the Justice Department. Both have pleaded guilty to obstruction of an official proceeding.
The charge carries with it a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, with the possibility of financial penalties.
Images of DeCarlo’s slogan on doors of the Capitol Building went viral in the days following the insurrection, where rioters tried to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election votes, some spurred on by conspiracy theories that the presidential election was rigged or stolen.
Ochs, whom DeCarlo accompanied into the building, is the founder of the Hawaii chapter of the Proud Boys, a far-right political group that describes itself as a collection of “Western Chauvinists,” according to the Justice Department. He was, as of the day of the insurrection, an “elder” in the group, a senior leadership role.
According to the Justice Department, DeCarlo and Ochs together illegally entered the Capitol Building through the Senate Wing doors around 2:23 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021, after attending a rally at the Ellipse, where they joined other people who were illegally on the grounds.
At the Capitol Building, the two moved through the Crypt, where they recorded video of themselves smoking cigarettes, then to the Capitol Visitor’s Center, East Foyer, Statuary Hall and the Rotunda before exiting the building around 3 p.m., according to the Justice Department. They then approached the Chestnut-Gibson Memorial Door to the building, where DeCarlo wrote the slogan, “Murder the Media,” also the name of the men’s social media channel, on the door in marker, which Ochs recorded.
Also at the door, DeCarlo and Ochs rummaged through a U.S. Capitol Police duffle bag they found there, according to the Department of Justice. DeCarlo took a pair of plastic handcuffs from the bag before the pair walked away and Ochs said to the recording he was making, “Sorry we couldn’t go live when we stormed the [expletive] U.S. Capitol and made Congress flee.”
Ochs was arrested the next day, Jan. 7, in Honolulu, according to the Justice Department. DeCarlo was arrested on Jan. 26, 2021, in Burleson. They are both scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 9.
Since the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, 870 people have been arrested in nearly every state for crimes related to the breach of the Capitol Building, according to the Justice Department.
Among those, 265 have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement. Investigations into the insurrection are ongoing.
This story was originally published September 9, 2022 at 4:10 PM.