Jan. 6 defendant convicted on separate weapons charges

By MATTHEW BARAKAT
Associated Press

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A jury has convicted a Navy reservist from Virginia accused of storming the Capitol on Jan. 6 on separate charges that he illegally possessed silencers disguised to look like cleaning supplies. The conviction Wednesday night against Hatchet Speed in federal court in Alexandria came a month after a jury failed to reach a verdict in his first trial. At the retrial this week, the jury needed only a few hours of deliberation before convicting him on all three counts. The case against Speed in Virginia hinged on three devices he bought in 2021. Speed contended the devices are “solvent traps” to collect excess liquid that spills out when a gun is cleaned. Prosecutors said the solvent traps were essentially silencers in disguise.