On January 6, 2026, four men from the Chattanooga area received an official pardon from President Trump for activities around the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and one man should now be released from federal custody where he had been serving a years-long prison sentence.
Jose Padilla, Willam Beals, Zylas Hamilton, and Chad Hedgcock were all charged in the months following the Capitol protest, and all four faced a variety of federal charges tied to their participation.
Padilla, a former prison corrections officer, was sentenced in September of 2023 on eight felony and two misdemeanor charges. After a bench trial instead of a jury trial, U.S. District Judge John D. Bates in the District of Columbia found Padilla guilty on all ten counts including two assaults on a police officer, one with a flagpole the court classified as a “deadly weapon”.
