A 34-year-old man was sentenced to a year and a half in federal prison on Thursday for throwing a flare onto flammable debris piled against the front gate of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland.
Trenten Edward Barker, of Portland, pled guilty previously to one count of arson against a federal building.
On June 11, he fired a flare from his bag toward the ICE building’s driveway gate about 10 p.m. A mound of road signs, traffic cones, cardboard, tree branches, logs, and lumber that had been arranged as an attempted blockade beside the metal gate caught fire.
Prosecutors say federal officers used a huge fire extinguisher to put out the blaze about five minutes later.
According to federal officials, Barker damaged the gate by approximately $8,820.
Barker, dressed in black, fled into the crowd, but Portland police officers apprehended him about an hour later, according to prosecutors.
Assistant US Attorney Leah Bolstad argued for a two-year prison sentence for Barker, calling it a severe felony that jeopardized the lives of police inside the facility.
“Bringing a flare to block an exit where people are working is incredibly dangerous,” according to Bolstad. “I hope today’s sentence sends a message of deterrence — that setting a fire is going to be punished.”
Barker’s attorney, Assistant Federal Public Defender Peyton Lee, requested a sentence of time served with home confinement and location monitoring.
Barker has no prior criminal record and has been a positive member of his community, she said. He is an artist who organizes craft nights, supports minority-owned businesses, and works to help those affected by natural catastrophes, she explained. He has also worked as a forklift driver.
More than 20 family and friends gathered in court to support him.
Barker’s flare was leftover from a photographic assignment, which he had packed in his backpack, Lee explained.
She described Barker’s actions as a “momentary bad decision … a very quick, very bad impulsive decision.”
Barker expressed “truly sorry” to U.S. District Judge Adrienne Nelson for endangering people’s safety.
The court stated that she took into account his family and friends’ amazing support, as well as his absence of a prior criminal record, but also observed that 95% of those who faced identical accusations with similar backgrounds spent an average of 38 to 41 months in custody.
Nelson claimed Barker had only been in jail for a weekend since his arrest.
She ordered him to surrender to US marshals on April 30, allowing him to attend a federal pretrial “Prison and Beyond” session to better prepare him for his time in detention and ease the transition.
She also ordered him to pay $8,820 in reparations for damage to the ICE building’s metal gate. He is willing to pay $3,000 of the total amount right away, according to his lawyer.
In 2022, a 23-year-old man was sentenced to time served for an attempted fire at the federal courthouse in downtown Portland in 2020. Prosecutors say Joseph James Ybarra lit a Molotov cocktail and threw it in front of the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse at 3:15 a.m. on July 22, 2020.
According to federal officials, the gadget dropped to the ground, where Ybarra scooped it up and hurled it twice more. It did not explode, and no one was wounded.
Four of the 41 people detained and charged with federal misdemeanors or crimes in connection with ICE protests since last June have had their cases dismissed. Others have been sentenced to six months to a year of federal probation after pleading guilty to offenses such as assault on a federal officer, property damage, and failure to obey an order.
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