Ex-Miami Proud Boy Convicted on Felony Charges for January 6 Capitol Riot

A onetime Miami Proud Boy and former Miami-Dade Republican Executive Committee member has been convicted of two felonies for storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

As a mob of Trump supporters descended upon the Capitol on January 6, 2021, Gabriel Garcia hopped on Facebook live to record himself inside the building while he taunted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to "come out and play." Sporting a red Make America Great Again cap, he allegedly encouraged other members of the crowd to flood into the building and called police "Fucking traitors."

The former U.S. Army captain and ex-Proud Boy leader was one of the first South Floridians nabbed in connection with the riot.

During a Monday bench trial, more than three years after his arrest, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson found Garcia guilty of civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding. His sentencing is scheduled for March 28, 2024.

Garcia is one of numerous Proud Boys indicted for breaching the Capitol during the certification of electoral college votes for the 2020 election of President Joe Biden.

Miami native Enrique Tarrio, the Proud Boys chairman at the time, was sentenced in September to 22 years in prison for his role in orchestrating the Capitol attack, although he wasn't present at the riot, having been arrested two days earlier on charges related to the burning of a stolen Black Lives Matter flag. Four prominent members of the Proud Boys — Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, and Zachary Rehl, and Dominic Pezzola — were tried alongside Tarrio and received felony convictions for storming the Capitol.

Garcia was also one of at least a half-dozen then-current and former Proud Boys who managed to secure seats within the Miami-Dade GOP Executive Committee, the Republican Party's local governing body, in an effort to shape local politics from the inside.

Garcia previously served as leader of Miami's Vice City Proud Boys, the far-right group's local chapter formed by Tarrio in 2018. Garcia has since claimed to have parted ways with the extremist group.

Garcia pleaded not guilty to the two felonies and four other charges: entering and remaining in a restricted building, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.

A self-described lifelong Republican who ran a failed campaign for Florida House of Representatives against incumbent Daniel Perez in 2020, Garcia made headlines in the months following his January 6 arrest for repeatedly requesting the removal of his GPS ankle monitor, which he claimed was making "embarrassing beeping noises" in front of his business clients.

After more than two years of traveling around the country while awaiting trial (read New Times' coverage "Around the U.S. With Jetsetting January 6 Defendant Gabriel Garcia"), prosecutors sought to revoke his travel privileges following his allegedly unauthorized pit stop at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland.

"Because this defendant has continually taken advantage of the permissiveness of the court with deceptive travel requests, and takes to social media to mock the process, it is apparent that [he] does not appreciate the gravity of the situation he is in and he does not respect this court’s authority," prosecutors claimed.

His attorney at the time, Aubrey Webb, argued that the requirement that Garcia provide his precise itinerary to the court only applied when he was in Washington, D.C., and that Garcia accordingly did not violate the court's orders. But in mid-March, Judge Jackson found him in violation of his release conditions and placed him on home detention.

In the aftermath of the CPAC controversy, Webb told New Times that Garcia would be willing to resolve the charges if the government dropped the felony counts against him. Prosecutors declined to do so, and after Garcia waived his right to a jury trial, Jackson found him guilty of the felony charges at the November 20 bench trial in D.C.