Ex-Army Ranger from Glenshaw gets 5-plus years for Jan. 6 Capitol riot

A combat-hardened ex-Army Ranger from Glenshaw who breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and fought with law enforcement officers was sentenced Wednesday to 66 months in federal prison.

Robert Morss, 29, a former Shaler Area School District substitute history teacher, was convicted in August by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers with a dangerous weapon, obstruction of an official proceeding and robbery.

The government had asked for a significantly longer prison term. But Morss still got a far stiffer sentence than he sought.

Prosecutors said Morss, outfitted with a vest containing body armor plates, a knife sheath and scissors, fought with police inside a tunnel in the Capitol.

“Take a look around. We are going to take our Capitol back,” Morss yelled to police, according to prosecutors.

With thousands of troublemakers swarming the Capitol grounds and fighting police in an effort to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential election, Morss joined other rioters in pushing law enforcement back to the building’s Lower West Terrace.

Fresh from attending the “Stop the Steal” rally on the Ellipse, he tried to grab a police baton, removed a bike rack fence buffering police from the rioters, stole a riot shield from a detective and joined with others in rocking against the police line in a “heave-ho motion,” prosecutors said.

Later, Morss climbed into the Capitol through a broken window.

In describing his actions that day, prosecutors said Morss “drove from Pennsylvania to Washington, D.C., with the expectation that there would be violence, and he came ready for the fight.”

Morss was arrested in June 2021 and charged with eight others. So far, six have been sentenced for their roles in the riot.

Nicholas Smith, a lawyer for Morss, declined comment.

But in court papers, Smith downplayed his client’s actions. He described Morss as a remorseful veteran who enlisted at 18, served three tours in Afghanistan, from 2011 to 2015, and then got a degree at Penn State University.

He also acknowledged that his client’s cellphone was populated with “Stop the Steal” messages, a movement that Morss supported.

“Morss did not direct the crowd to the Capitol Building. He had no preconceived plan to enter the Capitol himself. The crowd turned into a mob, which then led to a riot in the shadow of the Capitol Building,” Smith wrote.

“Morss did not whip up the mob. Nor did he foresee one forming. Like hundreds of others in the area, he engaged in criminal conduct in an unprecedented scene of chaos. Morss has no history of seeking out and inflaming riots or political extremism.”

Smith complained that the case has turned his client’s life “upside down.” He submitted to the court letters from several character witnesses, including the commander of an American Legion post, Morss’s martial arts instructors, a middle-school classmate and a college peer.

But the federal government had messages of its own to use to press its case— texts sent by Morss in the days leading up to the riot.

On Dec. 31, six days before the riot, Morss texted someone that he was “excited for the 6th” and sent a picture of President Donald Trump next to the words “Be there, Will be Wild.”

“IT’S GOING DOWWWWWWN!!!!!” Morss texted.

More than 1,000 people have been arrested in connection with the Capitol breach.