WASHINGTON — A Virginia Beach fishing charter captain who posted his participation in the Capitol riot to Facebook was sentenced earlier this month to two years of probation.
Back in September, Jacob Hiles pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building. In exchange for Hiles' guilty plea, the Department of Justice dropped the remaining three misdemeanor charges against him.
Hiles was sentenced on Dec. 6, exactly 11 months to the day he and others stormed the Capitol.
He was arrested in January after “multiple Facebook friends” shared posts and videos he had made of himself inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
According to charging documents, the posts began early in the morning, when Hiles posted shortly before 6 a.m. that he was, "Feelin' cute... might start a revolution later, IDK."
Later in the day, the FBI says Hiles posted about being tear-gassed and entering the Capitol and being nearby when another rioter, Ashli Babbitt, was fatally shot while attempting to breach the Speaker’s Lobby. Hiles also posted multiple videos of himself, including one in which he smokes an "unidentified substance" inside the Capitol.
Several other people from the Hampton Roads area have also been arrested and charged for participating in the insurrection, including Robert Packer from Newport News and Douglas Sweet and Cindy Fitchett of Mathews County.
As a fisherman and charter captain, Hiles was previously profiled by 13News Now in February of 2020 when he caught a record-breaking 700-pound tuna in Rudee Inlet.
WUSA 9NEWS contributed to this report.