A Central Texas winery owner was sentenced to 83 months in a federal prison years for his leadership role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, a judge decided Tuesday.
Christopher Ray Grider, a Falls County resident who owns the Kissing Tree Vineyards in Bruceville-Eddy, was found guilty on seven federal charges in December 2022. He also pleaded guilty to two lesser charges, both misdemeanors, at his bench trial presided over by U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly. Grider elected to have a bench trail rather than a jury trial and Kollar-Kotelly determined guilt or innocence.
Kollar-Kotelly sentenced Grider, 41, to 83 months in a federal prison — slightly less than the 87 months recommended by federal prosecutors. She ordered him to pay $5,044 in restitution for the damage he caused to the Capitol and to be placed on supervised release for three years following his release from prison. The judge ordered Grider to surrender $800 raised through a gofundme.com account.
Grider faced a maximum prison term of 39½ years, but had sought a prison term around 18 months.
Grider requested that he be allowed to serve his time at a federal prison in Bastrop. He will remain free until July 18, the day he is order to surrender to the federal Bureau of Prisons.
Kollar-Kotelly found Grider guilty of civil disorder, obstruction of an official proceeding, destruction of government property, remaining in a restricted building or grounds, engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or building.
Grider pleaded guilty on Dec. 12 to two misdemeanor counts — entering and remaining in a restricted building or ground and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
“As this court concluded after a week-long bench trial, Grider ‘was a leader, not a follower,’ during the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021,” the government’s 37-page sentencing memorandum said.
Grider was among the first rioters to enter the U.S. Capitol, two minutes after the building was breached at the Senate Wing Door. Earlier he picked up a Capital Police helmet and beckoned supporters of former President Donald Trump forward, repeatedly handing the helmet to others to use as a weapon, “brandishing it above his head,” the memorandum said.
During the bench trial, Grider testified that he traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend a rally for Trump. He admitted he entered the Capitol building with other Trump supporters but denied his intent was to halt the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential election.
The government said Grider’s statements at his bench trial were false.
“Many of Grider’s sworn statements at trial were false — indeed, several directly contradicted Grider’s own sworn statements at his change-of-plea colloquy a few days earlier,” the document said. “Most glaringly, Grider lied about knowing whether he was authorized to be on Capitol Grounds.”
The document said Grider falsely claimed to not know he was unauthorized at the Capitol, despite witnessing pepper spray and tear gas used by police during rioting and being pepper sprayed himself at one point.
An arrest affidavit said Grider was inside the Capitol near the Speaker’s Lobby when police fatally shot Ashli Babbitt as she attempted to climb through a broken window of a door leading to the House chamber, where Congress held a joint session to certify President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.
“Even after another rioter was shot only feet away from Grider, Grider made no attempt to leave,” the document said. “Grider instead lingered at the scene for several more minutes, defying the orders of law enforcement officers who were pleading with the mob to leave, and impeding their efforts to render medical assistance and restore order.”
Prosecutors said Grider had multiple opportunities to leave the Capitol during the riot, but chose not to do so.
Grider — a former teacher in the Dallas and McKinney school districts — was arrested on three charges after he surrendered to the FBI in Austin in January 2021.
Grider, the married father of four children, was recorded in the Capitol, wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat, a mask and a “Don’t Tread on Me” flag tied around his neck.
The government, in the sentencing memorandum, said Grider “had no excuse for persevering in the violent takeover of the Capitol on Jan. 6.”
“He cannot blame his poor judgment on lack of maturity, on naivety about political demonstrations, or on social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. … Grider chose to ignore unmistakable indications that breaching the restricted perimeter, let alone the Capitol building, was unlawful.”
The evidence in the case supports “a substantial term of incarceration.”
“Grider’s criminal conduct — which, again, ranged from using police barricades in service of the rioters to stealing a case of water bottles left behind by law enforcement on the Upper West Terrace, from attempting to cut power to the Capitol building to pushing through the police line in the Crypt, from participating in the siege of the House Main Door to handing a hard police helmet to another rioter so he could break down the glass panes of the Speaker’s Lobby Door — was the epitome of disrespect for the law,” the document said. “And Grider’s repeated lies, under oath, demonstrate an utter lack of respect for this court and the judicial process.”
