A man who was supposed to be in prison but was pardoned by President Donald Trump on his first day back in office was arrested May 9 after he allegedly broke into a Henrico, Virginia, home and made off with several items.
Zachary Jordan Alam, 33, of Centreville, entered through a back door, the homeowner said.
“The man took several items before he was observed by people in the home and was asked to leave,” police said. “Officers located the man in a nearby neighborhood and arrested him.”
Alam was among the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot. Trump pardoned them all, commuting their prison sentences or pledging to dismiss the cases yet to be heard. The riots ultimately resulted in five deaths, injuries to 140 police officers and at least $2.8 million in property damage.
Alam had been sentenced to eight years in prison last November. He had smashed the door panel that rioter Ashli Babbitt tried to crawl through before police shot her.
The federal judge who presided over his case said Alam was one of the most violent and aggressive Jan. 6 rioters.
“Those are not the actions of a patriot,” U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich said at Alam’s sentencing. “To say otherwise is delusional.”
Alam assisted other rioters scale barriers outside the Capitol before entering the building himself through a broken window. He had attended then-President Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on Jan. 6, 2021.
Alam, according to prosecutors, screamed obscenities at police, tried to kick in a hallway door and threw a red velvet rope at officers from a balcony as he rampaged through the Capitol.
Alam also punched and shattered three windowpanes on the doors of the Speaker’s Lobby
He used a helmet, handed to him by another rioter, to smash the glass panes.
Prosecutors said Alam continued to break the glass even after he had been warned by other rioters that police officers behind the doors were armed and ready to fire.
Alam defended his actions at his sentencing hearing.
“Sometimes you have to break the rules to do what’s right,” he said.
In a letter to the court, Alam’s mother said his father disowned him for failing out of medical school. Since then, he worked various odd jobs since, including unloading trucks and bussing tables.
“Zachary had turned to alcohol and drug use and associated with people who were negative influences; he began committing misdemeanor crimes to survive,” she wrote.
His defense attorney for the Capitol riot trial, Steven Metcalf, called him a “troubled loner” who “just wanted to fit in somewhere because he has been rejected by everyone else in his life.”
Alam is charged with residential breaking and entering and vandalism in the Henrico County case. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for late June.
Alam joins a growing list of Jan. 6 recidivists who’ve been charged with crimes since their pardons from the president.
Florida resident Daniel Ball was rearrested on federal firearm charges while still in custody just one day after federal prosecutors dismissed his Capitol riot case under a clemency order from Trump
The firearm case, originally filed in Florida in August, had been delayed due to 38-year-old Ball’s arrest in Washington on charges related to his participation in the Capitol riot.
David Daniel, 37, who pleaded guilty on Jan. 8, 2025, to assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6 Capitol attack and faced eight years in prison, has been charged in North Carolina on new alleged crimes related to possessing child pornography and sexually exploiting minors.
Back in January, Indiana man Matthew Huttle was fatally shot by a sheriff’s deputy during a traffic stop.
Huttle, 42, was convicted for his involvement in the Capitol riots, where he was documented inside the building for 10 minutes and lingering on the grounds for hours.
After he was pulled over by Jasper County Sheriff’s deputy on State Road 14 in Indiana, Huttle fought back when the officer tried to arrest him. The ensuing scuffle led to the deputy fatally shooting Huttle, who was also armed, according to police.
Andrew Taake, 36, was arrested in early February after spending more than two weeks as a fugitive on a sex crimes charge, is accused by Houston authorities of online solicitation of a minor stemming from a 2016 incident in which he allegedly sent sexually explicit messages to an undercover law enforcement officer who was posing as a 15-year-old girl.
Federal prosecutors said Taake used bear spray and a metal whip to assault officers. He was arrested after bragging about the incident to a woman he met on an online dating app.
