A Mays Landing man who stole two microphones during last year's U.S. Capitol riots was sentenced to 10 days in jail Friday.
Robert Lee Petrosh, 52, also must return the mics he took from the lectern of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
"Give us Nancy and we will leave," Petrosh told a Capitol police officer inside the Capitol's Crypt Jan. 6, 2021.
He walked to the Rotunda with others, smoked a cigarette and then stole the microphones separately.
Three days later, Petrosh texted a friend: "Got you a souvenir... Microphone from congress hall."
HIs attorney called Petrosh "a misdirected tourist with misguided beliefs that found his way in the middle of one of the most embarrassing days in U.S. history."
"(He) is a combat veteran that participated in Desert Storm and put his life on the line for our country," attorney Steve Scheffler said of the retired Marine. "His actions inside the Capitol that day were completely out of character."
Video submitted to the court included a one minute and 14 second video Petrosh recorded showing him going up the stairs of the Upper West Terrace, shouting "Our house" with the rioters and walking past four U.S. Capitol police officers stationed outside the Senate Parliamentarian door.
A seven-minute clip shows Petrosh and others in a standoff with law enforcement inside the room below the Rotunda known as the Crypt. The clip shows them pushing past the police line and crushing officers near one of the exits to the Crypt.
The government had asked for 120 days in jail. But U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden agreed to a much shorter term.
"Thankfully, Judge McFadden punished him for his conduct that day and not his political views," Scheffler said. "It was the right result despite the (Department of Justice) requesting a lengthy term of incarceration."
Petrosh also must pay a $1,000 fine along with $938 in restitution as his part of the nearly $1.5 million in estimated damages by the rioters.
