By DAVE COLLINS HARTFORD, Conn.
A Connecticut woman who stormed the U.S. Capitol during the January 2021 insurrection was sentenced Friday to five weekends in jail, 60 days of home confinement and a $2,500 fine, while her daughter will serve 90 days of home confinement.
Jean Lavin, 57, and her daughter, Carla Krzywicki, 20, appeared at separate sentencing hearings before a federal judge in Washington. Both pleaded guilty in January to a misdemeanor charge of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
FILE – Rioters loyal to President Donald Trump rally at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell also said the Canterbury, Connecticut, residents will serve three years of probation and pay restitution of $500 apiece to the Architect of the Capitol, to help pay for the nearly $1.5 million in damage done to the building by supporters of former President Donald Trump who tried to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
The two women were arrested in September after an unidentified tipster told the FBI that Krzywicki posted two photos on Facebook of herself and her mother outside the Capitol and of the scene inside the building, according to court documents. Krzywicki said in a previous court hearing that she removed the photos after realizing the seriousness of the situation.
Lavin and Krzywicki said they traveled to Washington on a bus trip from Norwich to hear Trump speak, but arrived too late and missed the speech. Photos of the women shows them inside the Capitol and Lavin carrying a sign that read “Trump Won” on one side and “Don’t allow 7 states of cheaters to hijack our election!” on the other.
Lavin’s lawyer, public defender Charles Wilson, declined to comment after the sentencing Friday. He wrote in court documents that Lavin was inside the Capitol for about 30 minutes. She had no plans that day other than to see Trump speak, and now recognizes that entering the Capitol was wrong, he wrote.
Krzywicki’s attorney, H. Heather Shaner, said her client accompanied her mother to Washington because her mother’s friend had decided not to make the trip and Krzywicki was worried about her mother’s heart condition. Shaner said Krzywicki is not political and if anything is liberal-leaning.
“If anything good came of Jan. 6,” Shaner said in a phone interview, “it was whatever spell her mother had over her … was broken. She’s sweet, she’s kind and very responsible.”
