Dec 8, 2022 3 min read

The Fayette County man who showered police officers with pepper spray during the attack on the U.S Capitol was convicted on all charges Tuesday, exactly 23 months to the day after the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Peter Schwartz, 49, of Uniontown, was convicted on all 10 counts – including four felonies – alongside two co-defendants for their roles in the attack on Congress by supporters of former president Donald Trump attempting to thwart Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s presidential victory.

The jury returned the verdict Tuesday afternoon following a six-day trial before U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in federal court in Washington, D.C.

Schwartz, who faces up to 20 years in prison per federal guidelines, will be sentenced by Mehta early next year, although a date has not yet been scheduled.

Co-defendants Jeffrey Scott Brown, 56, of Santa Ana, Calif., and Markus Maly, 48, of Fincastle, Va., were also convicted during the trial.

Schwartz’s wife, Shelly Stallings, who joined him at the Capitol during the attack, pleaded guilty Aug. 24 and faces 46 to 57 months in federal prison when she’s scheduled to be sentenced by Mehta on Jan. 13.

Schwartz, who is originally from Owensboro, Ky., was working as a traveling laborer in Uniontown when he and Stallings traveled to Washington, D.C., for a rally in support of Trump before they walked with the mob to the Capitol. Video posted online showed Schwartz spraying police officers with their own pepper spray and wielding a wooden baton as he and Stallings attempted unsuccessfully to enter the Capitol building. He also threw a chair at police officers, federal investigators said.

Schwartz admitted to his role in the attack in social media posts and text messages to friends that federal investigators found on his cellphone.

“What happened yesterday was the opening of a war,” Schwartz wrote in a Facebook post the day after the Capitol riot. “I was there and whether people will acknowledge it or not we are now at war. It would be wise to be ready!”

Schwartz added he “started a riot” and that he and others were “still spitting up gas and mace today” following the battle with police officers who were protecting Congress.

Schwartz, a previously convicted felon on release from a Kentucky state prison due to COVID-19 safety measures, was arrested Feb. 4, 2021, outside the Cleveland Avenue apartment he shared with Stallings. He has been jailed without bond since his arrest and fired several of his defense attorneys while consistently challenging federal prosecutors over his detention in Washington, D.C.

Stallings was not arrested until this February after moving back to her native Kentucky. The couple is now estranged.

Schwartz was convicted on four felony charges of assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement officers using a dangerous weapon; interfering with a law enforcement officer during a civil disorder; and obstruction of an official proceeding, along with six additional misdemeanor charges. Schwartz’s defense attorney, Dennis Boyle, said Wednesday he had no comment on the case.