HELENA — A fourth Montanan has been accused of participating the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Isaac Steve Sturgeon, of Dillon, has been indicted on more than a half dozen charges, including obstruction of justice; assaulting, resisting or impeding officers; engaging in physical violence in a restricted building and an act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds.
Prosecutors allege in court documents that Sturgeon was seen on an officer's body-worn camera on January 6 and was part of a group who picked up a metal barricade and shoved it into a group of D.C. Metropolitan Police officers.
Court documents say authorities were able to identify and link Sturgeon to the Capitol riot through tips and social media posts. However, Sturgeon flew to Kenya on Jan. 24 and did not have a return flight booked until early April. But Kenyan authorities ordered Sturgeon deported back to the United States.
He was arrested at JFK International Airport on Saturday.
Witnesses told authorities that Sturgeon traveled frequently. A search of his name shows that Montana U.S. Senator Steve Daines helped Sturgeon return from Morocco in March of last year, at the start of the pandemic.
An email from Sen. Daines office dated March 21, 2020 said Sturgeon became stuck overseas due to the coronavirus outbreak and was trying to return home to family. Sturgeon had also previously shown. interest in joining the National Guard. MTN interviewed him in August of 2019 at a National Guard recruiting event in Helena.
Three other Montana men have been charged with participating in the January 6 riot. Dillon business owner Hank Muntzer has pleaded not guilty to five changes. Brothers Joshua and Jerod Hughes turned themselves in in Helena. A federal judge in Great Falls ordered them returned to Washington, D.C. while they away trial.
