SC man back in jail after judge finds he tampered with witness in Jan. 6 Capitol riot case

An Upstate man who led a “pack of rioters” on a rampage through the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 riot is back in jail on charges he tampered with a witness in his case, a federal magistrate judge ruled Monday in Greenville.

William “Robbie” Norwood III, of Greer, had been free on bond awaiting trial on multiple charges.

But evidence in his case, reviewed Monday morning by Magistrate Judge Kevin McDonald, found that Norwood had sent “thousands” of text messages to his estranged wife, whom he was under court order not to contact. McDonald then revoked Norwood’s bond and ordered him confined.

“A review of the small sample of text messages presented by the government in support of their motion and supplemental motion to revoke pretrial release ... reveal that the defendant has attempted to obstruct justice with these communications,” McDonald ruled.

McDonald also ordered Norwood transferred to a jail in the District of Columbia area, where trials for the alleged participants in the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol are being held.

Norwood was one of the first rioters inside the Capitol on Jan 6. Once inside, he led other rioters to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, shouting, “This is our house. ... Where you at Nancy?” according to government evidence in the case.

In a January hearing, federal prosecutors asked U.S. Judge Emmet Sullivan to put Norwood in jail because, they said, he had tried to intimidate his estranged wife, an important witness in his case.

Norwood carried out “what appears to be a sustained campaign ... to coerce, intimidate, threaten, and corruptly persuade a potential government witness to recant her statements to law enforcement and to obstruct justice,” according to a January prosecution motion.

The judge said he would allow Norwood to stay out of jail, but only if he only if he behaved himself.

“If I hear one more allegation under oath by your estranged wife that you have contacted her, I will issue a sealed bench warrant and have you arrested,” the judge told Norwood at the Jan. 16 hearing.

“I’m concerned about potential danger to any witness. There are too many times when we pick up the newspaper following day after one of these domestic violence hearings and see where someone’s head has been blown off. I’m going to do whatever I can to avoid that,” the judge continued.

The prosecution’s motion in the case said Norwood had been pressuring his estranged wife to recant her statements to the FBI, to lie and to “keep [her] mouth shut.” He also wanted her to invoke “spousal privilege,” a doctrine by which one spouse cannot be compelled to testify against the other spouse, the prosecutors’ motion said.

The estranged wife also was quoted in the January prosecution motion.

“Robert Norwood has been trying to [coerce] me into emailing you, stating that, anything from my statements to the FBI were not true,” she said. “However, I do not feel comfortable lying [sic] about anything. ... I do not feel comfortable in anything that he was telling me to do.”

In papers filed Monday, prosecutors said Norwood’s continued text messages “show that he not only lacks regard for this Court’s orders, but he also lacks regard for the rule of law and for this Court’s specific advisements about witness tampering, intimidation, and retaliation.”

A Trump supporter, Norwood was arrested in February 2021 after a person close to his family tipped off the FBI that he had been bragging about his actions on that day, according to a federal complaint in his case.

He is one of 11 people from South Carolina facing charges connected to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

He faces multiple charges, including stealing government property, obstruction of an official proceeding, entering and remaining in a restricted building, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building, entering and remaining in certain Capitol rooms.

Two charges are felonies, and Norwood faces a prison sentence of up to 20 years if convicted.

In the 14 months since Jan. 6, more than 775 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the Capitol, including more than 245 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington.

The average age of those arrested is 39 years old, and 87% were men and 13% were women, according to the George Washington University Capitol Siege Extremism Tracker. So far, 227 people, or about 27% of those arrested, have pleaded guilty.

Approximately 140 police officers were assaulted in the Jan. 6 riot, including about 80 U.S. Capitol Police and about 60 from the Metropolitan Police Department, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

The investigation remains ongoing, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office in the District of Columbia.

This story was originally published March 14, 2022 at 12:20 PM.