A homeless man who was accused of shining a laser pointer at Marine One — the official presidential helicopter — was acquitted by a Washington D.C. jury after just 15 minutes of deliberations.
The incident occurred on September 20, 2025, as Marine One departed from the White House South Grounds. Secret Service Officer Diego Santiago, who was on patrol near 17th Street and Constitution Avenue NW to secure the helicopter’s flight path when he spotted a shirtless man walking and talking loudly to himself, according to a criminal complaint.
The man was identified as Jacob Samuel Winkler, a 33-year-old Washington, D.C. resident who is currently homeless.
According to the complaint, Santiago aimed a flashlight at Winkler due to low visibility, at which point Winkler pointed a red laser beam at the officer’s face, briefly disorienting him. As Marine One flew low overhead — close enough for its rotors to be audibly loud — Winkler allegedly looked up and pointed the laser at the aircraft.
The agent then detained Winkler and recovered a red laser pointer and a small three-inch fixed-blade knife. Winkler appeared to express remorse, saying, “I should apologize to Donald Trump” and “I apologize to Donald Trump,” court documents said.
In a post-arrest interview, Winkler admitted to pointing the laser but claimed he didn’t know it was illegal. He further claimed that he often aimed it at innocuous objects like stop signs and had no malicious intent toward the president or the aircraft.
He was ultimately charged with a felony for knowingly aiming a laser pointer at an aircraft in U.S. special jurisdiction, carrying a potential five-year prison sentence and up to $250,000 fine. Prosecutors argued the act posed a serious risk of pilot disorientation or flash blindness, potentially endangering Trump, the crew, and nearby aircraft in the bustling D.C. air corridor.
At trial, evidence included Officer Santiago’s testimony, body-worn camera footage, the recovered laser pointer, and Winkler’s statements. The defense countered by claiming the laser pointer was nothing more than a harmless key chain, arguing that it posed no risk to the aircraft. Public defenders further criticized the prosecution as a “misuse of prosecutorial discretion” that diverted resources from real threats.
After a brief deliberation of just 35 minutes, Winkler was found not guilty on the lone charge levied against him.
In yet another example of what the Trump DOJ is up against, especially in DC, a DC jury deliberating for about 35 minutes before acquitting a homeless man of shining a red laser in the face of a Secret Service agent then Marine One in September.
This is about the same amount of… pic.twitter.com/uZYZvxpiJ9
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) January 20, 2026
The verdict has generated intense scrutiny following recent dubious acquittals by D.C. juries, which contrast dramatically with the same jury pool’s treatment of January 6 defendants.
Of the 1,500 January 6 defendants charged by the Biden Administration — the vast majority of whom were charged with simple trespassing offenses — none were fully acquitted by a D.C. jury. A sizable percentage of defendants were sentenced to federal prison terms for simple trespassing, something that was without precedent in D.C. history.
Just two January 6 defendants were acquitted through bench trials, while a large number pleaded guilty rather than face certain conviction at trial.
The nation’s capital is one of the most overwhelmingly left-wing municipalities in the country. In the 2020 presidential election, Joe Biden received 92.15 percent of the D.C. vote compared to Trump’s 5.4 percent, while then-Vice President Kamala Harris received 90.28 percent to Trump’s 6.47 percent in 2024.
