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SALT LAKE CITY — A man accused of helping torch a Salt Lake police car at a protest over the death of George Floyd will remain behind bars pending trial.
After two hours of argument Thursday in U.S. District Court, a judge determined that Jackson Stuart Tamowski Patton poses a danger to the community because of his alleged actions during the May 30 downtown riot.
“The question is what was your contribution. Unfortunately for you, your contributions were substantial,” Magistrate Judge Dustin Pead told Patton, who appeared via videoconferencing from the Weber County Jail.
Patton, 26, is charged with arson affecting interstate commerce. He faces up to 20 years in prison, including a minimum mandatory sentence of five years, if convicted. He did not speak during the hearing.
The patrol car was at 400 South near 200 East when protesters flipped it onto its hood and eventually set it ablaze. The burning police car was one of the most visible moments of the protest.
Assistant U.S. attorney Drew Yeates showed video of a man that appears to be Patton picking up a burning bed sheet or piece of cloth and putting it onto the overturned patrol car. Seconds later, the man dumped what Yeates called an accelerant from a can next to the car onto the flames, causing them to get bigger.
Patton, 26, did not light the sheet on fire nor did he throw it toward the car, Yeates said.
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3 more charged with overturning Salt Lake police car during riot
Three more people were charged Monday with flipping over a Salt Lake City police patrol car during a recent downtown riot.Patton was arrested June 2 after once again being in the downtown area and violating the city’s mandatory curfew, police say. Officers said they recognized him by his tattoos.
Federal public defender Wojciech Nitecki argued that Patton didn’t help flip over the police car and wasn’t the one who set it on fire. Nitecki showed a video of another man claiming to have started the fire.
Patton, he said, became caught up in the emotion of people chanting to burn it.
“This was an in-the-moment type of offense that was incited by the crowd,” Nitecki said, adding others fueled the fire after Patton walked away. “This was, by all means, a community effort, if you will, in destroying this car.”
Pead said being caught up in the moment didn’t make it any less dangerous.
“You retreat for a few seconds, then you go back, and things get worse,” the judge said. “Those things alarm me.”
Patton is one of two men charged in federal court with arson in connection with the burning of the police car.
Prosecutors say LaTroi Newbins, 28, of Salt Lake City, threw rolled up paper into the burning car to intensify the fire. Newbins said at a hearing Tuesday he had wetted down the paper in an attempt to douse the flames.
Pead agreed to release Newbins from jail to home confinement under a list of specific conditions pending trial.
