Trump supporter arrested in Berkeley could face lengthy prison term

A Daly City man charged this week with possessing a lead-filled stick that he allegedly used to hit counterprotesters during a March rally in Berkeley could face up to eight years in state prison because of a prior violent felony, officials said Friday.

Since his arrest after the pro-President Trump rally March 4, 41-year-old Kyle Chapman has taken up the nickname “Based Stickman” and attracted a following of supporters in online white nationalist forums. Berkeley investigators said they identified him as the wielder of two makeshift cudgels by reviewing videos of the melee.

A 1993 felony robbery conviction in Texas along with a 2001 grand theft conviction in San Diego County mean that Chapman faces a maximum prison sentence of seven to eight years, said Teresa Drenick, a spokeswoman for the Alameda County district attorney’s office, which charged him Wednesday with felony possession of a leaded cane or billy.

The possibility of a lengthy sentence is laid out in a California law that allows for a doubled prison term in the wake of a past violent felony conviction — in this case, the robbery.

Chapman, who isn’t in custody and didn’t return requests for comment, is scheduled to speak at a Saturday “new free speech” rally in Boston whose organizers are encouraging participation from Trump supporters. He fumed Thursday, saying on Twitter and Facebook the charge was “trumped up bogus.”

Police officers detain demonstrator, Kyle Chapman in Berkeley, Calif., on Saturday, March 4, 2017. Police officers detain demonstrator, Kyle Chapman in Berkeley, Calif., on Saturday, March 4, 2017. Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close Trump supporter arrested in Berkeley could face lengthy prison term 1 / 8 Back to Gallery

“I’m ready to go to jail for this movement. I’m ready to do a lot more than that,” he said in one post. In another he wrote, “I’m being set up by Alameda county. They are fabricating a case against me to stop me from speaking at Boston. I never had a lead pipe or a leaded stick.”

In a probable cause declaration, Berkeley police Officer Darrin Rafferty said that Chapman was identified in one video as wearing a black baseball helmet, goggles and a backpack with metal buckles on it and shooting what appeared to be pepper spray at counterprotesters who were arguing with him.

In another video, Rafferty said, Chapman was seen swinging a sign made out of a long piece of lumber at a woman, though it wasn’t clear from the footage whether she had been hit.

When Chapman was arrested, police seized a large stick with two American flags on it that “had been fashioned and carried as a weapon,” Rafferty said.

According to his Facebook page, Chapman said he will attend a similarly styled event, “No Marxism in America,” planned for Aug. 27 in Berkeley. His plans could change, though, depending on what a judge decides at his arraignment scheduled for Aug. 25.

Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov