MARYVILLE, Tenn. — A Maryville man will need to wait longer for a preliminary hearing after he was charged with illegally entering the Capitol Building and assaulting an officer during the Jan. 6 insurrection.
According to court documents, Edward Kelley from Maryville is charged in a criminal complaint filed in federal court in the District of Columbia with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers, civil disorder, destruction of government property and related offenses.
His preliminary hearing was originally scheduled for Dec. 20. However, it was moved to Feb. 28, 2023, at 1 p.m.
On Friday, the Department of Justice also said he was charged with conspiracy, retaliating against a federal official, interstate communication of a threat, and solicitation to commit a crime of violence. He was charged for those crimes alongside another man from Knoxville, Austin Carter, 26, according to the DOJ. Carter has a detention hearing scheduled for Dec. 21.
The DOJ said Kelley got a list of law enforcement personnel who participated in the investigation into charges stemming from the Jan. 6 insurrection. They said he discussed collecting information and plans to kill the personnel on the list with Carter.
Those talks included discussions of an attack on the FBI's field office in Knoxville, according to a release from the DOJ.
"During the walk, Kelley made a statement to the effect of, 'With us being such a small group, we will mainly conduct recon missions and assassination missions,"' one witness in the criminal complaint said. The witness said Kelley asked them to "reach out to your cop buddies" to collect information about people on the list.
According to court documents, Kelley was among a crowd of rioters on Jan. 6 that illegally gathered at the Capitol. Kelley was seen wearing a gas mask and a green tactical helmet along with a backpack.
Capitol surveillance footage shows that Kelley moved to the scaffolding over the stairs of the West Front of the Capitol, where he and two other men got into an altercation with a Capitol Police officer. Kelley and the other two men grabbed and threw the USPC officer to the ground, authorities alleged.
Court documents said Kelley pushed and pulled on a metal barricade as he made his way to the outside of the Senate Wing door. Kelley was seen using a piece of wood to break the window close to the Senate Wing door, the government alleges.
Kelley was the fourth rioter to enter the building through the window, according to government evidence. After entering through the broken window, Kelley moved to the still-closed Senate Wing door and kicked it open, which allowed other rioters to enter, images show.
As he moved through the building, Kelley changed from the gas mask into a red, white and blue medical mask and entered the Rotunda. Kelley left the building approximately 40 minutes after he first broke in.
Kelley was arrested in Knoxville and appeared in federal court there in May. The case will be prosecuted from Washington.