San Marcos man arrested for role in Capitol riot

A San Marcos man was recently arrested in connection with his involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, according to documents from the U.S. Department of Justice. 

Documents show that the FBI was tipped by a family member of Samuel Christopher Montoya, who worked for Infowars, that a video showed him walking through the Capitol. The family member said the video captured footage of the death of Ashli Babbitt — a 35-year-old Air Force Veteran who was shot and killed by police during the Capitol riot. The FBI interviewed the family member who said that Montoya showed the video to his family who all recognized him in the video. Documents state that the family member was shown a still shot of the narrator’s face in the video on Feb. 24 and confirmed it to be Montoya. 

The FBI reviewed an open-sourced video entitled “Patriots Storm Congress Raw Footage Includes Execution of Ashli Babbitt,” which was posted on Jan. 6. The narrator in the video describes himself as “Sam with Infowars.com.” The video shows Montoya going into the Capitol building along with crowds of protesters. In the video, Montoya describes himself as a reporter or journalist, however, documents show that a name check conducted within the Senate Press office confirmed that no one by that name has Congressional press credentials as an individual or via any other organization. 

During the video, Montoya makes statements such as “We are in the Capitol, baby! Yeah!” and “Here we are in the US Capitol in Washington DC in the Capitol building, it has officially been stormed by Trump supporters … And here we are, taking our — the people’s house back!”

Following the Jan. 6 events, Montoya was interviewed on the Infowars show “War Room with Owen Shroyer” on Jan. 8 and on Jan. 11 who was credited as “Sam,” “Video Editor,” and “Infowarsstore.com” appearing to wear the same tan jacket he wore at the U.S. Capitol. During a Jan. 11 interview with Shroyer, Montoya said, “I was there. I was there on the outside. I was there on the inside.” He was interviewed for a third time by Shroyer on Jan. 12. 

The FBI also reviewed U.S. Capitol Police surveillance, which captured Montoya at various locations inside the Capitol building. Documents state that he was wearing a tan jacket, red “Make America Great Again” baseball cap and black backpack from the 44-minute video he captured. 

Montoya is charged with entering a restricted building, disorderly and disruptive conduct in the Capitol building, impeding passage through the Capitol, and “parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building,” documents show. 

The DOJ stated that Montoya was arrested on April 13, and had his initial appearance on April 14 in the Western District of Texas.