Jan. 6 defendant Christopher Worrell credited a federal judge with saving his life two years ago, when he freed the Florida Proud Boy from pretrial detention over concerns about his medical treatment.
“You very likely saved my life,” said Worrell, who has a rare form of chronic lymphoma, during tearful remarks at his sentencing hearing Thursday.
U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth sentenced Worrell to 10 years in prison for spraying pepper gel at a line of police officers on Jan. 6, when Worrell joined more than 100 Proud Boys on a march to the Capitol and witnessed some of the earliest violent clashes between the mob and Capitol Police.
But before he issued his sentence, Lamberth offered a kind word to Worrell, whose loud and early complaints about his medical treatment during his pretrial confinement led Lamberth to hold jail officials in contempt of court. The move prompted a series of inquiriesthat resulted in reforms and improvements in medical treatment for hundreds of inmates, he said.
“Some good came of all this,” Lamberth said, adding that he directly raised concerns prompted by Worrell to the attorney general of Washington, D.C.
It was a remarkable close to one of the earliest chapters in the entire Jan. 6 investigation, Worrell was arrested in March 2021 and his odyssey through the court system tracked many inflection points in the broader probe.
His trial — in which he waived his right to a jury to permit Lamberth to pronounce the verdict — overlapped with the seditious conspiracy trial of five Proud Boys leaders who led the mob Worrell was a part of. Worrell pushed the notion that he was a “political prisoner” and that the mob included far-left agitators.
And after prosecutors recommended a 14-year jail sentence in August, Worrell fled. He told the court Thursday he fled because he was afraid he would die in jail.
Worrell evaded capture for 45 days, when the FBI discovered him returning home to retrieve more of his medication. Prosecutors say that Worrell then faked a drug overdose that caused a five-day hospital stay. On Thursday, Worrell said he had in fact swallowed an entire bottle of pills at the time and had dangerous levels of opiates in his system.
Lamberth ultimately sentenced Worrell to 10 years in prison — even though his assault and obstruction charges, as well as his attempt to flee, called for a steeper sentence. Lamberth said it reflected a concern about his medical conditions.
“I don’t want to see you die in prison,” said Lamberth, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan.
Still, Lamberth scolded Worrell during the sentencing for claiming to be a political prisoner, prompting Worrell’s attorney William Shipley to attribute the belief to a “continuous feedback loop” among Jan. 6 defendants held at the Washington, D.C., jail.
Lamberth said the complaints were simply “wrong.”
“It’s wrong to think that he’s a political prisoner,” Lamberth said. “It’s not OK. The court can’t send a message that it was OK.”
Worrell used his remarks to the court to praise prosecutors and the court, saying they had “shown me fairness through this process.”
“If I could go back in time,” he said, “I would change many things about that horrible day.”