Ross woman gets 14 days incarceration, 2 years probation for entering U.S. Capitol during riot

A Ross woman who admitted to entering the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riots will serve 14 days incarceration and two years probation.

Jennifer Heinl, who turns 45 on Thursday, was sentenced on Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan via video conference. She must also serve 50 hours of community service.

“I truly accept responsibility for entering the Capitol,” Heinl told the court. “I should have known better, and I’m deeply sorry for that.”

Heinl was charged in March 2021 with entering the Capitol building, disorderly conduct and violent entry. Investigators said she traveled with Kenneth Grayson, of Bridgeville, to Washington, D.C., to attend a rally with President Donald Trump.

She pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building on Nov. 2.

According to federal prosecutors, Heinl entered the Capitol that day at 2:20 p.m., walked to the Crypt area and Rotunda and spent 47 minutes inside.

After her arrest — and even during Wednesday’s hearing — Heinl said she entered the Capitol for her own safety, and to try to get away from the chaos outside, including tear gas and flash bangs.

“I was extremely frightened and scared,” she told the court. “I thought I needed to go in there to take cover.”

“Why didn’t you turn around and run the other way?” Sullivan asked.

“There was nowhere to go. I didn’t know where to go,” Heinl answered.

But Sullivan told the defendant her explanation was unbelievable.

“It’s hard for the court to accept that as justification,” he said. “I just reject that as a rational explanation.”

Video surveillance captured Heinl giving another rioter a high five, and she appears to be smiling in a still image taken that day. She also stopped to take a commemorative photo of Grayson, the prosecution noted.

Defense attorney Martin Dietz told the court his client has already paid a “dire price for her conduct,” and that incarceration is unnecessary.

“She has lost her friend base. It’s cost her her marriage. It’s cost her a very good job,” Dietz said.

He asked the court for probation, arguing that even 14 days of incarceration — as the prosecution requested — was unnecessary.

“She doesn’t need to be deterred,” he said.

Sullivan, who said several times that he believes Heinl is both a good person and a good mother, disagreed, saying that he found the short period of incarceration — as well as probation — to be “imminently fair.”