Emotions ran high during testimony in the trial of a North Texas man charged in connection with the insurrection at the US Capitol.
Guy Reffitt of Wylie, Tex., on trial for five criminal charges including obstruction and weapons offenses, was in tears when his son Jackson testified against him as part of the ongoing trial.
Jackson Reffitt, 19, told the jury he had become concerned about his father's rhetoric in the weeks between the election and the January 6th uprising, describing text messages sent by Guy Reffitt as “surreal and scary,” according to court transcripts obtained by NPR.
“What’s about to happen will shock the world,” typed Guy in a message to his family just weeks before the January 6 riots at the Capitol.
Jackson Reffitt had already reported his father to the FBI ahead of the insurrection, an action that Jackson said made him “feel creepy,” but the FBI didn’t respond to him, ironically, until January 6.
Jackson told the jury when he saw the TV images of the riot, he began texting his father who was at the scene. The teenage son said he was telling his father to believe in the system even though his father was railing about a stolen election.
Upon Guy’s return home, Jackson recorded video of him talking about his experiences in Washington.
“Your father was there when an epic historical thing happened in this country,” Guy said on the video, which was shown to the jury. “I didn’t make it in. But I started the fire.”
The jury was also shown video shot by Guy at the riots using a 360-degree camera attached atop a helmet he was wearing that day.
“We're taking the Capitol before the day is over," Reffitt said on the video. "Ripping them out by their hair — every f***ing one of them.”
The video featured Guy Reffitt shouting profanities as he goaded the other rioters around him and threatened prominent politicians, reserving a particular ire for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“Pelosi's coming out on her f***ing ears, dragging that bitch out hard core,” Reffitt shouted in the video.
Reffitt did not make it into the Capitol building that day after Capitol Police shot him with pepper balls and an orange chemical spray that temporarily blinded him. But he bragged on a Zoom recording that was played for the jury that he was an instigator nonetheless.
“Nobody was moving forward until I climbed up that bannister,” he said in the footage. “I couldn’t even see, but I kept screaming, ‘Take the House.’”
He also voiced a distaste during that Zoom call for the Capitol Police who ultimately helped quell the uprising. “They’re lucky we didn’t shoot ‘em,” Reffitt said. “They really should be grateful.”
The defense attempted to paint Jackson Reffitt, who has publicly supported Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ causes, as just as dug into a political ideology that runs contrary to his father’s beliefs, but the younger Reffitt said he was frightened his father might become violent towards his family.
Jackson told the jury that Guy Reffitt told him and his sister Peyton that “traitors get shot,” and that when a “flustered” Peyton turned her attention to her phone, Guy Reffitt threatened to “put a bullet” through it.
“Scared, not really for myself, but for my sister,” Jackson told the jury. “Because what he said was a threat… That’s not OK to say to your kids.”
Jackson Reffitt’s testimony lasted over three hours. The trial continues today.
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