A Fleming Island home remodeler was sentenced to one year and a day on Friday, Jan. 17, for felony destruction of government property and other charges related to his conduct during the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol, but he joined three other Clay County residents who received pardons last Monday, hours after Donald Trump took the oath as the 47^th President.

Calling nearly 1,500 people who participated in attempt to disrupt a joint session of the U.S. Congress convened to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the 2020 presidential election “hostages,” Trump kept a campaign promise and erased the convictions of everyone involved with the riot.

A pardon means a President has the executive power “to forgive a person convicted of a crime, thus removing any remaining penalties or punishments and preventing any new prosecution of the person for the crime for which the pardon was given. A pardon strikes the conviction from the books as if it had never occurred, and the convicted person is treated as innocent,” according to law.com.

A federal jury in the District of Columbia found Marcus Smith, 47, of Fleming Island, guilty of a felony offense of destruction of government property, including a vintage 1853 mahogany door worth $21,000.

Smith was also found guilty of six misdemeanor offenses, including entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings, and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

Adam Avery Honeycutt, 43, of Orange Park, Rachael Lynn Pert, 44, and Dana Joe Winn, 49, both of Middleburg, also received pardons related to the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol.

According to evidence presented during the trial, on Jan. 5, 2021, Smith traveled from Jacksonville to Washington, D.C., with three other individuals to “Have [his voice] heard.” On January 6^th, Smith approached the United States Capitol building among a large crowd of rioters. Smith saw that the barricades around the Capitol had been moved as he approached the building.

At approximately 2:44 p.m., Smith entered the Capitol building via the Parliamentarian Door on the northwest side of the building after watching rioters in that location smash through the door two minutes earlier. Smith tried to advance further into the Capitol through the Brumidi Corridor but found his way blocked by a line of police officers. Smith saw people trying to break down the door to Room S-131. Smith joined them, throwing his shoulder into the door as they struck it. After several forceful attempts, Smith and the group managed to open the door. The Architect of the Capitol assessed the damage to the Senate Wing door, originally from the 1850s, at $21,000, requiring its replacement.