Three local men among those pardoned for Capitol riot

Three local men are among the hundreds pardoned Monday by President Donald Trump on his first day in office for convictions related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. 

Trump commuted the sentences of 14 defendants and pardoned all of the other defendants — about 1,500 — who had been convicted of offenses related to the Capitol riot.  

Lonnie Leroy Coffman, 75, of the Lacon Mountain area near Falkville, pleaded guilty in November 2021 to possession of an unregistered destructive device and carrying a pistol without a license. He was sentenced to three years and 10 months in prison, with credit for time served in jail, followed by probation. He was released from prison in October 2023 after receiving mental health counseling, according to court records. 

Coffman, a Vietnam War veteran who served in the U.S. Army, was carrying a loaded handgun and revolver without a license as he walked in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, according to prosecutors. He wasn’t accused of entering the Capitol or joining the riot that day. 

When Coffman parked his truck a few blocks from the Capitol on the morning of Jan. 6, it contained a handgun, a rifle, a shotgun, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, a crossbow, machetes, a stun gun and a cooler containing 11 Mason jars with holes punched in the lids, according to prosecutors. Each jar contained a mixture of gasoline and Styrofoam, which are components of the homemade incendiary devices called Molotov cocktails, prosecutors said. 

Handwritten notes found inside the vehicle included a quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln that said, “We The People Are The Rightful Masters Of Both The Congress And The Courts, Not To Overthrow The Constitution But To Overthrow The Men Who Pervert The Constitution.” 

The notes included a list of “good guys” and “bad guys,” with a federal judge named in the latter category, and contact information for a member of a Texas militia group known as the “American Patriots,” prosecutors said. 

“The handwritten notes also included an address for a reported gathering place in Texas called ‘Camp Lonestar,’ where militia groups had reportedly sought to patrol the border looking for illegal aliens,” prosecutors wrote. 

Investigators had previously identified Coffman as an armed participant at Camp Lonestar, according to prosecutors. 

Coffman, a retired machine operator, didn’t have a criminal record before this case, and as of Monday’s pardon he still doesn’t. 

“At my age, one of the most precious (things) we possess is time, and I have wasted almost a whole precious year,” he wrote in a letter to the judge. 

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Bobby Russell 

Bobby Wayne Russell, 50, of Falkville, entered a guilty plea to one felony count each of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers, and aiding and abetting, according to court records. He was sentenced to one year and one day in prison followed by two years of supervised probation. He completed his prison sentence in September. 

In the plea agreement, Russell acknowledges assaulting Michelle Turner, an officer with the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department. A body camera showed him, with his Alabama sweatshirt, pressing his back against a bicycle-rack barricade and clinging to it as officers tried to remove him and as Turner sprayed him with pepper spray, according to the plea agreement. 

“Due to the involvement of other rioters, the barricade broke apart. The defendant grabbed the jacket of MPD Officer Michelle Turner, pulling her down with him as he fell headlong down a short flight of stairs. They both ended up on the ground,” according to the plea agreement, and Turner said he tried to grab the pepper spray canister from her. These events took place at about noon on Jan. 6, 2021, a statement of offense appended to the plea agreement said. 

At about 3:25 p.m., bodycam video shows Russell on the Upper West Terrace of the Capitol, outside the doors to the Senate wing. Russell was recorded telling one officer, “I’m not scared of you, and I’m not weak,” and then joining in a chant of, “Whose house? Our house.” 

Five minutes later, according to the plea agreement, Russell said to officers, “Did y’all think it was gonna come to this? I knew it was gonna come to this.” 

At 4:20 p.m., according to the plea agreement, officers guarding the Senate wing area formed a line and walked toward the rioters, shouting for them to move back. Russell resisted, pushing his back and buttocks into the riot shield of an officer. 

“There’s more of us than you guys; you’re gonna lose,” Russell told the officer, and then continued to resist law enforcement, the plea agreement says. 

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Donnie Wren 

A jury found Donnie Duane Wren, 46, of Athens, guilty of civil disorder and assaulting, impeding or resisting officers, both felonies, and a single misdemeanor of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds. He was sentenced to one year and one day in prison, followed by two years of probation. He was released from prison in September, according to prison records. 

Wren and his cousin, Thomas Harlen Smith, 46, of Mathiston, Mississippi, were both sentenced by U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton. A jury convicted Smith, who also was pardoned Monday, of 11 charges, including nine felonies and two misdemeanors. Smith was sentenced to 108 months in prison and 36 months of probation. Smith was in prison when pardoned, with a release date set for April 2031, according to prison records. 

According to the U.S. District Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, the evidence at trial showed that Smith picked up Wren in Athens on his way to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5, 2021, to attend the rally being held the next day by President Donald Trump. 

After attending the rally, Smith climbed a column near the African American History Museum with an outdated Mississippi state flag containing a Confederate battle flag symbol. 

Wren and Smith then entered the restricted Capitol grounds and climbed onto the stage that had been set up for the inauguration of then-President-elect Joe Biden. 

“Smith pushed toward the front of a group of rioters and used a flagpole like a spear to try to break a window next to the Lower West Terrace doors (of the Capitol building),” according to the prosecutors. “Smith thrust his flagpole at the window five times. He then surged through the doorway, where he and a mass of other rioters pushed into a line of Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers attempting to hold the door shut.” 

Wren and Smith then climbed a railing to the Upper West Terrace of the Capitol where they pushed against the shields of officers seeking to clear the area, according to prosecutors. 

“Wren’s push against the riot shield was an early assault on the Terrace that instigated the fight between rioters and police who were attempting to clear the Terrace,” according to an Oct. 10 sentencing memorandum by U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves. 

While this was happening, Smith kicked an MPD officer in the back, sending the officer to the ground. He then picked up a metal pole-like object and threw it toward the line of police, striking two MPD officers in the head, according to evidence at trial. 

Later in the day, Smith described on Facebook the assault on the Capitol: “Patriots stood together and battled the tyrannical cops throughout the entire afternoon.”