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- Lonnie Leroy Coffman, 71, is from Falkville, Alabama.
- He confessed to walking around Washington, DC, with two loaded firearms on January 6.
- He has been detained since his arrest on the day of the US Capitol insurrection.
An Alabama man who was arrested in Washington, DC, on January 6 admitted Friday that he parked a pickup truck full of weapons near the US Capitol, pleading guilty to charges that could land him up to 25 years in prison.
In a plea agreement, 71-year-old Lonnie Leroy Coffman confessed to parking his vehicle – and the arms cache inside of it – on the morning of the January 6 insurrection less than a half-mile from Capitol grounds. According to the US Department of Justice, he also admitted walking around the area with two loaded firearms on his person without a license, a violation of DC law.
As Insider reported in January, members of the US Capitol Police Bomb Squad searched Coffman's vehicle on January 6 after receiving reports of possible explosive devices in the area. Inside, they found several firearms, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, a crossbow with bolts, machetes, a stun gun, and a cooler with 11 mason jars that contained explosive ingredients for so-called Molotov cocktails. Coffman was arrested that evening when he returned to the vehicle.
A grand jury soon after indicted Coffman on more than a dozen weapons charges, but he was not charged with entering the US Capitol. He has been detained ever since.
At a hearing in federal court on Friday, Coffman sought to minimize the importance of the Molotov cocktails, according to local news station WRC reporter Scott MacFarlane, telling the judge he "didn't plan on blowing nothing up." But he then admitted to knowing it was unlawful to manufacture them. Additional material for making the explosive devices was discovered when authorities searched his home back in Alabama.
According to the Justice Department, Coffman pleaded guilty to two federal counts of possessing an unregistered firearm - each carries a potential sentence of 10 years in prison and $250,000 fine - and carrying a pistol without a license in Washington, DC, for which he faces up to five years in prison and a $12,500 fine.
Sentencing is scheduled for April 1, 2022.
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