Local Jan. 6 Defendant To Be Tried in D.C., Not Jacksonville

Just Days After Trump's Scheduled Sentencing in New York

This is the Washington, D.C. court where the fate of Marcus Smith will be decided.

The Fleming Island man who lol’ed on Facebook after helping to break down a Capitol door during the riot of January 6, 2021, got some bad news earlier this week. His lawyers struck out—three motions denied.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich refused to allow the Marcus Smith trial to be moved from Washington, D.C. to Jacksonville. His lawyers had argued that the jury pool had been tainted by publicity surrounding the hundreds of January 6 defendants convicted so far.

They also argued that Smith would be in “a different, more prejudicial” environment than earlier defendants because at the time of the motion it was believed that ex-President Donald Trump might be going to trial at around the same time on charges in connection with the 2020 election aftermath. A ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court put Trump’s trial on hold until after the November presidential election.

However, if Smith’s September 24 trial date holds, he will be in court just six days after Donald Trump’s sentencing date for his unrelated conviction on felony fraud charges brought by New York State, which could result in jail time and for sure a lot of publicity.

Fleming Island's January 6 Defendant Asks That His Trial Be Moved to Jacksonville

Watch Video of Fleming Island Man Busting Through Door on Jan. 6.

The judge denied Smith’s request to further delay his trial in a seven-count indictment against him, which had already been delayed once.

Smith lawyers had also argued that six of the seven counts against him should be dismissed. The judge denied that motion too.

One of Smith’s charges was a felony offense of destruction of property and aiding and abetting. According to the indictment, the damage Smith did to a door at the U.S. Capitol cost more than $1,000 to repair. The amount is an element of the felony charge. The prosecution has a videotape of Smith helping others ram through the door.

Smith was also charged with several misdemeanors: Entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings, and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

Smith, a home-maintenance contractor, is one of 11 people from Northeast Florida and more 1,300 nationwide charged in connection with the Capitol riot. Nine of the other 10 have been adjudicated with five sentenced to prison. Smith was taken into custody by a Clay County deputy in January, turned over to the FBI and has been free on bail ever since.

This is the judge’s bio on the District Court website:

Judge Dabney L. Friedrich was appointed to the District Court in December 2017.  She received a B.A., magna cum laude, in economics from Trinity University in 1988.  Judge Friedrich then received a Diploma in Legal Studies from Oxford University in 1989 and a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1992. 

After law school, Judge Friedrich served as a law clerk to the Honorable Thomas F. Hogan of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.  Following her clerkship, she was a litigation associate at Latham & Watkins in San Diego from 1994 until 1995.  From 1995 until 2002, she served as an Assistant United States Attorney, first in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California, and beginning in 1998, in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.  In 2002, Judge Friedrich joined the staff of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary.  From 2003 until 2006, she served as an Associate Counsel to President George W. Bush.  In 2006, Judge Friedrich joined the United States Sentencing Commission where she served as a Commissioner until 2017.