Christopher Worrell Jan. 6 Case: Convictions, Manhunt, Pardon

Christopher Worrell’s January 6 case ended with a presidential pardon on January 20, 2025, roughly a year into the ten-year federal prison sentence he received for pepper-spraying police officers at the U.S. Capitol as a member of the Proud Boys. Between the attack and the pardon came a bench trial and conviction on seven counts, a six-week stint as a fugitive after he cut off his ankle monitor, and a contempt ruling against D.C. jail officials over his medical care while in pretrial detention.¹

What Worrell Did at the Capitol

Worrell, of Naples, Florida, belonged to the “Hurricane Coast Zone 5” chapter of the Proud Boys and coordinated his travel to Washington with other chapter members in the weeks before January 6, 2021.²³ He arrived at the Capitol wearing body armor and ear protectors and carrying two canisters of Sabre Red Maximum Strength Pepper Gel, a GoPro-style camera, a shield, and a large radio for coordinating with other Proud Boys.⁴

Prosecutors said Worrell and other Proud Boys “played a pivotal role in collapsing the police line on the west front, leading to the first breach of the Capitol building.”⁴⁵⁶ Agents arrested him at his Naples home on March 12, 2021.²

The Seven Convictions

Worrell chose a bench trial before U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington. On May 12, 2023, Lamberth found him guilty on all seven counts: obstruction of an official proceeding; entering or remaining in a restricted building with a deadly or dangerous weapon; disorderly conduct in a restricted building with a deadly or dangerous weapon; engaging in physical violence in a restricted building with a deadly or dangerous weapon; an act of physical violence on Capitol grounds; civil disorder; and assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers using a dangerous weapon. Six counts were felonies and one was a misdemeanor.²³

Worrell testified that he had been spraying other rioters rather than police. Lamberth called that claim “preposterous,” treated it as a false narrative, and found that Worrell had committed perjury on the stand.³⁶

The D.C. Jail Contempt Ruling

While held at the D.C. jail awaiting trial, Worrell was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, broke a hand that his attorneys said needed surgery, and contracted COVID-19. His complaints about the care he was receiving turned into a courtroom confrontation with the jail.⁷

On October 13, 2021, Judge Lamberth held D.C. jail warden Wanda Patten and Department of Corrections Director Quincy Booth in civil contempt for failing to turn over Worrell’s medical records and failing to ensure he received necessary treatment. Lamberth said the failures amounted to more than “inept and bureaucratic shuffling of papers” and found that Worrell’s civil rights had been violated.⁷ He referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney General to look into whether the jail was violating the civil rights of January 6 detainees more broadly.⁸

On November 3, 2021, after a U.S. Marshals inspection Lamberth described as revealing “deplorable” conditions, the judge ordered Worrell released to home detention. He said he had “zero confidence” that the facility would provide proper medical treatment or refrain from retaliating.⁹ The episode helped prompt broader reforms to medical care at the jail.¹⁰

Cutting the Ankle Monitor and the Manhunt

On August 14, 2023, four days before his scheduled sentencing, Worrell cut off his GPS ankle monitor in a Walmart parking lot and disappeared. Judge Lamberth canceled the hearing and issued a bench warrant, and the FBI opened a manhunt that lasted six weeks.³¹¹

On September 28, 2023, FBI agents surrounded Worrell’s Naples home after learning he was trying to return. They entered and found him unconscious. Authorities recovered night-vision goggles, roughly $4,000 in cash, and a bag of new camping gear.¹¹⁵ Worrell later admitted to investigators that he had faked an opioid overdose to stall his sentencing, an act that had required sheriff’s deputies to guard him in a hospital for five days.³ He told the court he had fled because he feared dying in jail.¹⁰

The Ten-Year Sentence

On January 4, 2024, Judge Lamberth sentenced Worrell to 120 months in federal prison, followed by 36 months of supervised release, $2,000 in restitution, and a $610 special assessment.³ Prosecutors had asked for 14 years. Lamberth went lower out of concern for Worrell’s chronic lymphoma, telling him, “I don’t want to see you die in prison,” while noting that the underlying assault, obstruction, and flight otherwise warranted a steeper term.¹⁰

Addressing the judge at sentencing, Worrell said, “You very likely saved my life,” a reference to the earlier intervention that had gotten him out of the D.C. jail and into better medical care.¹⁰

Pardon and Release

On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump issued sweeping clemency to roughly 1,500 January 6 defendants, Worrell among them. Federal Bureau of Prisons records showed he was no longer in custody as of January 21, 2025, after serving about a year of the ten-year sentence.¹

Worrell received a full pardon. That set his case apart from higher-profile Proud Boys leaders such as former national chairman Enrique Tarrio, whose 22-year sentence for seditious conspiracy was commuted but whose conviction was not immediately cleared.¹²

Where Worrell Fit Among the Proud Boys Prosecutions

Worrell was charged and tried on his own conduct at the Capitol, not on conspiracy. Federal authorities identified more than three dozen Capitol siege defendants as leaders, members, or associates of the Proud Boys, and Tarrio’s 22-year term in September 2023 was the longest handed down in any January 6 case.¹³⁶ Unlike Tarrio and co-defendants Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, Ethan Nordean, and Dominic Pezzola, Worrell was not part of the seditious conspiracy case. His conviction rested on the assault and obstruction he personally carried out.

His disappearance in August 2023 landed in the same window as the sentencing phase for Tarrio and the other conspiracy defendants, though the two cases proceeded on separate tracks.¹³ A later Justice Department move in April 2026 to vacate seditious conspiracy convictions covered 12 specific Proud Boys and Oath Keepers defendants and did not involve Worrell, whose case had already been closed out by the pardon.¹⁴

1
Naples Daily News. East Naples Proud Boy Christopher Worrell Pardoned, Apparently Released
2
Naples Daily News. Christopher Worrell Missing, Naples Proud Boys Capitol Riots
3
WUSF. Florida Proud Boy Christopher Worrell Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison
4
The New York Times. Florida Proud Boy Sentenced for Jan. 6
5
ABC News. Former Proud Boy Involved in Jan. 6 Run Sentenced
6
PBS NewsHour. Proud Boys Member Who Went on the Run Gets 10 Years in Prison
7
CNN. January 6 Contempt Lamberth
8
The Washington Post. D.C. Jail Conditions Contempt Investigation
9
CNN. Jan. 6 Rioter Released Over Unsafe Jail Conditions
10
Politico. Jan. 6 Defendant Judge
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CBS News. Christopher Worrell Proud Boy Fugitive Captured FBI January 6
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The Hill. Trump Pardon Violent Jan. 6 Rioters
13
The Guardian. Enrique Tarrio Proud Boys Sentencing Jan. 6
14
CNN. Justice Department Vacate Seditious Conspiracy Convictions Proud Boys Oath Keepers