WASHINGTON — Two Donald Trump supporters who traveled to Philadelphia with guns after the 2020 presidential election were convicted Wednesday of gun-related charges but acquitted of three election-related counts.
Joshua Macias and Antonio LaMotta, both from Virginia, were arrested in Philadelphia on November 5, 2020, near the Philadelphia Convention Center, where votes were being counted after the presidential election. The couple traveled to Philadelphia in a silver Hummer with a QAnon decal and was found to be carrying a concealed Beretta 9mm pistol and a Beretta .40 caliber handgun, while keeping an AR-15-style weapon inside their truck, along with around of 160 rounds of ammunition.
A judge convicted both Macias and LaMotta on weapons charges Wednesday, but the duo was acquitted of the election-related charges, according to NBC10’s Lauren Mayk in Philadelphia. who was in the courtroom. The couple had faced three election-related charges: interference with the primaries/elections, hindering the performance of duty, and conspiracy-interference with the primaries/elections.
The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office said it believed the case was the most serious state election-related prosecution in Pennsylvania to come out of the 2020 election.
LaMotta, as previously reported by NBC News, was arrested on separate charges in August after online detectives spotted him in footage showing him inside the US Capitol on Jan. 6. Macías has not been charged in connection with the Capitol attack, but he was present at a meeting between Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and Proud Boys director Enrique Tarrio that took place in a Washington, D.C., parking lot. the night of January 5, 2021.
