Feds want 2.5 years for Chicago Heights man who threatened Biden’s inauguration

A Chicago Heights man with a history of violence and several criminal convictions faces sentencing for leveling a threat against President Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration in the fragile weeks leading up to the country’s most recent transfer of power.

Louis Capriotti, 47, left a voicemail for a member of Congress on Dec. 29, 2020, in which he said “we will surround the motherf---ing White House and we will kill any motherf---ing Democrat that steps on the motherf---ing lawn.”

One week later, rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol and interrupted the Electoral College vote, igniting what’s been described as likely the largest criminal investigation in U.S. history. Hundreds now face criminal charges, including at least 27 Illinoisans. Capriotti was arrested on Jan. 12, 2021, six days after the Capitol breach.

Capriotti’s threats were not connected to the breach. He did not participate in it or travel to Washington, D.C. Still, federal prosecutors say, “the timing of Capriotti’s voice messages should not be ignored” and only made his crime worse.

Meanwhile, Capriotti’s attorney has pointed to the “very light sentences” given to many people convicted for their participation in the Capitol breach. Defense attorney Jack Corfman also argued in a recent court memo that “our current political rhetoric has led to widespread use of harsher, more inflammatory language.”

Capriotti crossed the line, Corfman wrote. But he “did not do so in a vacuum, divorced from the political and news contexts around him.” Rather, “he did so with the news on his television.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney James Durkin has recommended a two-and-a-half year prison sentence for Capriotti, who pleaded guilty last October. Capriotti’s sentencing had been set for Thursday afternoon, but it was postponed at the last minute. The hearing was later rescheduled for May 17.

In a letter to the judge last month, Capriotti wrote, “I have learned my lesson. I do not want to spend any more of my life in jail. I understand that these calls crossed a line and I will not make any more to any politicians ever again.”

Cook County sheriff

Capriotti has spent the past 15 months in downtown Chicago’s Metropolitan Correctional Center. A magistrate judge ordered Capriotti held in federal custody Jan. 21, 2021 — the day after Biden’s inauguration — after a prosecutor played part of Capriotti’s voicemail rant in court.

The voicemail had been left for a member of Congress from New Jersey.

Capriotti could be heard in the recording saying that, if “motherf---ing p---y a-- Republicans and these Democrat f---ing terrorists think that Joe Biden is going to put his hand on the Bible and walk into that f---ing White House on Jan. 20th, they’re sadly f---ing mistaken.”

Capriotti also said, “Democrats are f---ing terrorists. They’re baby killers, gun grabbers, God-hating, cop-hating, open borders, fake climate change c---sucking cheaters.”

He also lied about being a “nine-year Marine, active duty.”

It wasn’t the first time Capriotti had made threatening calls to members of Congress, prosecutors say. FBI agents interviewed him in Orland Park on Feb. 7, 2020, about earlier calls he allegedly made. Capriotti acknowledged then that his voicemails could be perceived as threatening and dangerous, prosecutors said.

Durkin wrote in his own court memo that Capriotti has about 25 previous convictions on his record. Though many are for traffic offenses, they also include convictions for domestic battery and assault, according to the prosecutor. That record meant that “Capriotti is capable of following through on his anger and threats,” Durkin wrote.

But Corfman argued that Capriotti “had no intent, and no plan or ability” to follow through on his threats. No weapons were found in his home.

“The reality is that Mr. Capriotti has no affiliation with any groups or other individuals, and the genesis of his actions are much simpler: when he would hear things he didn’t like on the news, he would become upset and lash out,” Corfman wrote.