Brandon Fellows biography: 13 things about US Capitol rioter from Schenectady, New York

Brandon Craig Fellows is an American man from Schenectady, New York, United States. The city is around 380 miles away from Washington, D.C., USA.

Who is Brandon Fellows?

Aside from Schenectady, Fellows has lived in other parts of New York including Albany. Amid the new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020, his family avoided him because of his political views.

On November 3, 2020, Joe Biden won the U.S. presidential election, defeating Donald Trump. On January 6, 2021, Trump’s supporters breached the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C. while a joint session of the U.S. Congress was certifying the vote of the Electoral College and affirming Biden’s victory.

While living in a converted school bus, Fellows joined the U.S. Capitol riot. Here are 13 more things about him:

1. In 2006, Timothy Monroe became his stepfather.
2. From 2009 to 2012, he attended Niskayuna High School in Niskayuna, New York where he was a wrestler. He worked for Price Chopper Supermarkets in Schenectady as a cashier, donation collector and general maintenance staff member from April 2010 to April 2012 and as a front end supervisor and service action manager from April 2012 to February 2014.
3. From 2012 to 2013, he attended Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, New York.
4. From 2013 to 2016, he attended Schenectady County Community College in Schenectady. He was the captain of the wrestling club and a temporary member of the running club and the Christian club. From September 2013 to May 2014, he was also a student senator and a student assemblyman at the State University of New York in Albany.
5. From June 2014 to August 2014, he was a camp counselor, a fitness instructor and a wrestling coach at Camp Pinnacle in Voorheesville, New York.
6. In March 2020, he stopped working because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He was disappointed because the New York state denied him unemployment benefits. On December 25, 2020, no one from his family invited him to dinner except his grandparents.
7. Just after 1:00 a.m. on January 6, 2021, he arrived outside of the Ellipse, a park adjacent to the White House in Washington, D.C. He listened to Trump’s speech in front of the White House before joining the U.S. Capitol riot. Dressed in a knit hat that resembles a knight’s helmet and beard, a leather jacket with an American flag emblazoned on the back and snow pants, he entered Oregon senator Jeff Merkley’s office where he had his muddy boots propped on a table.
8. On January 16, 2021, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrested him and charged him with being in a restricted building or grounds and violent entry or disorderly conduct. He was initially granted pretrial release but in June 2021, he was ordered back into custody after repeated violations, including missing a court-ordered mental health evaluation and allegedly calling a probation officer’s mother. When a clerk of the court tried to contact him about another violation, an allegation that he was harassing a former girlfriend, it was discovered he had apparently put the number for the judge’s wife’s office instead of his own.
9. In September 2021, he asked U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden to allow him to represent himself pro se in his case. The judge warned him he could be opening himself up to perjury but ultimately granted his request.
10. On October 12, 2021, he testified on his behalf during his bond hearing. Assistant U.S. attorney Mona Furst got him to admit under oath that he climbed into the U.S. Capitol through a broken window without police permission on January 6, 2021, that he had used a judge’s wife’s contact information to try to get him removed from the case and that he had missed court-ordered mental health and drug testing appointments. After listening to him talk for almost two hours, McFadden told him, “You are charged with a federal felony. This is not a community college where you get pats on the back.”
11. On August 31, 2023, he was convicted of obstruction of an official proceeding, a felony, and misdemeanor offenses of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, entering and remaining in certain rooms in the U.S. Capitol building and disorderly conduct in a U.S. Capitol building.
12. On February 29, 2024, McFadden sentenced him to 37 months in prison plus an additional five months for a contempt of court charge. In April 2024, he turned 30. On May 20, 2024, he was released from prison.
13. On June 3, 2024, he was removed from a congressional hearing after making faces while Dr. Anthony Fauci was describing the death threats Fauci had received while overseeing the response of the U.S. to the COVID-19 pandemic.