Trial set for Missouri man who feds say first lied about invading Capitol on Jan. 6

A northwest Missouri man who authorities say originally lied about breaching the Capitol on Jan. 6 will go to trial early next year, a federal judge ordered Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton set the trial for Lloyd Casimiro Cruz Jr. to begin on Jan. 17 in federal court in Washington, D.C. Attorneys said they expected the trial to take two to four days.

Cruz, of Polo — about 50 miles northeast of Kansas City — is charged with parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building and entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds. Both charges are misdemeanors.

Prosecutors say Cruz first denied invading the Capitol building, then later told agents that reviewing videos he took that day reminded him that he had indeed gone inside.

Cruz is the second of the 22 Missouri defendants in Capitol riot cases to be scheduled for a trial. The other, Nevada locksmith Isaac Yoder, has a trial date set for Feb. 7. Of the remaining 20 Missouri defendants, 13 have pleaded guilty, with 10 of them receiving sentences.

According to the charging documents, records obtained through a search warrant showed that Cruz’s cellphone was in the Capitol on Jan. 6.

An FBI agent interviewed Cruz on May 19, 2021, at the Caldwell County Courthouse in Kingston, Missouri, the documents said. Cruz told the agent that he drove with friends to Washington, D.C., to attend the pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” rally. At the rally, Cruz said, former President Donald Trump encouraged the crowd to march to the Capitol. Cruz said he marched with the crowd down Pennsylvania Avenue, arriving at the west side of the Capitol about 15 minutes after Trump’s speech ended.

Cruz told the agent that he saw Capitol personnel removing the lower barriers to allow people to get closer to the building, the documents said. He said he observed the upper barriers being pushed over and moved out of the way by people who, based on their dark clothing and behavior, he assumed were associated with Antifa.

Cruz said he went onto the Capitol grounds because he saw tear gas and rubber bullets being deployed on protesters pushing through the barriers and wanted to help anyone who had been injured, according to the documents.

He told the agent that he walked up the northwest exterior steps of the Capitol but did not enter the building. After seeing a window break, he said, he realized the situation was deteriorating and left. He said he had recorded about 15 minutes of footage with his GoPro camera and would give it to the FBI if he could find it, the documents showed.

The agent interviewed Cruz again on June 1, 2021, according to the documents. Cruz gave the agent a thumb drive that contained photos and videos of his trip to D.C. He said that reviewing the videos “reminded him that he entered the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021.”

Cruz told the agent he wore a green coat, a camouflage Trump hat and a black face mask when he entered the Capitol, the documents said. He said he later saw himself on surveillance footage from inside the Capitol that had been posted on One America News Network’s website.

The agent called Cruz on July 23, 2021, the documents said. Cruz told the agent that when he marched to the Capitol, he was under the impression that Congress was in recess and that the vote to certify the presidential election results was to be later in the day.

According to the documents, Capitol video surveillance recorded Cruz entering the building at 2:14 p.m. and exiting at approximately 2:21 p.m.