A federal judge has granted the motion for a reduction in the sentence of Joshua Doolin, a Polk City man convicted last year of crimes related to the U.S. Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021.
The order means that Doolin could be leaving prison soon.
District Judge Carl Nichols issued an order Monday granting the motion submitted in March by Doolin’s public defender.
Nichols convicted Doolin in a March 2023 bench trial on one felony and three misdemeanors: civil disorder, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds and theft of government property. Nichols sentenced Doolin to 18 months in prison, followed by 36 months of supervised release.
Doolin, now 26, entered federal custody in October and is held at Federal Correctional Institution Coleman, a low-security facility in Sumter County. His appeal of his conviction remains active.
Federal Public Defender A.J. Kramer submitted a motion arguing that amended federal sentencing guidelines should be applied retroactively to benefit Doolin. The motion centered on a change to federal sentencing guidelines for “zero-point offenders,” or those with no criminal history and whose crimes do not involve violence.
The new guidelines provide for a two-level decrease in a defendant’s offense level, which helps determine a sentence. In addition to the lack of a criminal history, a defendant must meet a list of 10 criteria, among them that the offense did not involve violence or credible threats of violence, did not result in death or serious injury and was not a sex offense.
Doolin is scheduled for release on Nov. 12. In the motion, Kramer wrote that a sentence reduction would move his release date up to June 30.
The motion sought an “indicative ruling.” In his order, Nichols wrote that if his court had jurisdiction, it would grant Doolin’s motion for a reduction in sentence. Had the court been presented with the scheduling range under the revised guidelines, Nichols would have sentenced Doolin to 15 months, he wrote.
Doolin is one of seven current or former Polk County residents either accused or convicted of crimes connected to the uprising of Jan. 6. Three of his original co-defendants, Jonathan Pollock, Olivia Pollock and Joseph Hutchinson III, are scheduled for trial in October. All three became fugitives before being captured in January in Lake County.