Man charged in connection to 2020 Columbia riots receives prison sentence
COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO) — 3 years, 7 months and 18 days.
That’s how long Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott says it has been since rioters created chaos in Columbia which resulted in more than 100 arrests.
“We’re very proud of how we protect our citizens’ right to assemble and protest. Those two days were not protests, that was rioting,” said Columbia Police Department Chief Skip Holbrook.
On the final weekend of May 2020, law enforcement says that rioters turned a peaceful protest in the wake of George Floyd’s death into civil unrest.
“When you burn the American flag and police cars, throw rocks and bottles at people, break into businesses, steal stuff and attack people, you’re a common criminal and a terrorist. Those are the ones who led the way,” said Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott. “They would have burned the Columbia police department down if we had not stood the line that day. That’s what their intent was.”
Thursday in a Richland County courtroom, Joshua Barnard pled guilty to charges of rioting, larceny and breaking into a motor vehicle as well as possession of a controlled substance and three counts of sexual exploitation after investigators later found drugs and child pornography in his possession.
“I believe I now understand the impact my actions have had. I am here to answer for them,” Barnard said in Richland County courtroom Thursday.
The defendant’s attorneys stated that Barnard was a Marine veteran and also presented his employer to speak on his behalf.
“I think they tried to paint that as a mitigating factor,” Holbrook said. “I think that’s an aggravating factor. It makes it that much worse.”
For all of the charges, Barnard was sentenced to a total of two years in prison. Sheriff Lott says this sentence should have been closer to the maximum of 35 years behind bars.
“Look past just the rioting, there’s the child porn,” the sheriff said. “There’s no excuse for that. That’s a totally different monster that we’re dealing with.”
The sheriff says more than 100 people were arrested for taking part in the 2020 riots and is glad someone is finally being held accountable.
“We caught them. We did our part. We don’t control the criminal justice system but we did our part. We identified them and arrested them,” Lott said. “Chief Holbrook and I will never forget what happened. We’ve both been in law enforcement a long time and this is something we’ve never seen. I hope we never see it again.”
The 2020 protests in Columbia resulted in the burning of police cars after members of the extremist group ‘the Boogaloo boys’ allegedly incited violence. Sheriff Lott says Barnard was part of this group and used his military experience to turn peaceful protests into chaos.
