Non-violent January 6 Defendant, Nejourde Meacham, Dies at 22; UPDATE: Suicide Confirmed

Nejourde Meacham, a 22-year-old non-violent defendant charged with entering the U.S. Capitol on during the January 6, 2021, riot, has died while facing prosecution for four misdemeanors in what may have been a suicide.

Update (Sep. 11, 2023): Meacham’s death has been confirmed as a suicide:

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Meacham traveled to Washington, D.C., with his uncle, Odin. Both attended the “Stop the Steal” rally at the Washington Monument before proceeding to the U.S. Capitol. Odin was arrested in May this year and charged with violent felonies, including attacking police officers with a wooden pole.

But Nejourde “Jord” Meacham was never accused of violence. The federal complaint against him includes several photos of him wandering around outside and inside the Capitol building holding a “Trump 2020” flag. It states that he walked into the U.S. Capitol, then “walked to a broken southern window, looked out, and raised his ‘TRUMP 2020’ flag.” He was later escorted out of the building by law enforcement. He did nothing violent or destructive.

After an obituary for Jord Meacham was posted online, Julie Kelly, who has reported extensively on the January 6 trials, tweeted that she had been “told by a very reliable source” that he had committed suicide:

Other January 6 defendants have been known to commit suicide, including Matt Perna of Pennsylvania, 37, who was also a non-violent offender and had pleaded guilty. According to his family, Perna died of a “broken heart.”

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.