Man serving 30-year prison sentence for attacking Paul Pelosi is sentenced to life in prison on state charges

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The man sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for attacking former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband with a hammer in their California home was sentenced Tuesday to another state sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

A San Francisco jury found David DePape guilty in June of aggravated kidnapping, first-degree burglary and false imprisonment of an elder.

Before sentencing DePape to life in prison for the kidnapping conviction, Judge Harry Dorfman rejected defense attorneys' arguments to grant him a new trial 2022 attack against Paul Pelosiwho was 82 years old at the time.

“It is my intention that Mr. DePape never gets out of prison, he can never be paroled,” Dorfman said as he handed out the sentence. Later he said: “I have no pity for you. I feel for the victim in this case who is lucky to be alive.”

Adam Lipson, a San Francisco assistant public defender, had asked Dorfman to reflect on DePape's mental health and isolation, which made him vulnerable to online propaganda.

“This is a man who was always a peaceful, law-abiding person until he was activated,” Lipson said before imposing the sentence.

When DePape, dressed in prison orange with his brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, was given the opportunity to address the court before his sentencing, he spoke at length about how 9/11 was an inside job and his ex- His wife was replaced by a body double and his government-provided lawyers conspired against him.

“I’m a psychic,” DePape told the court, reading from sheets of paper. “The more I meditate, the more psychic I become.”

The judge interrupted DePape several times to ask if he wanted to address the jury's verdict or his behavior on the night of the attack, but DePape ignored the overtures.

In a letter read in court by the victim's daughter, Christine Pelosi, Paul Pelosi called for the maximum sentence, saying the “last peaceful sleep” was abruptly ended “when the defendant violently broke into my house, stormed into my bedroom and standing next to my bed with a hammer and cable ties demanding to see my wife and yelling, “Where’s Nancy?”

He said the attack left him with bumps on his head, a metal plate in it, dizziness and nerve damage in his left hand. Sleeping alone at home brings back memories of the attack, he said.

In a statement after Tuesday's verdict, the Pelosi family said that after two grueling years, “justice had been served.”

“Today’s life sentence without parole gives our Pope some measure of legal justice and, we hope, a message to others that political violence against elected officials or their family members will not be tolerated, minimized or tolerated,” the statement said . “We must all do our part to build a peaceful democracy.”

A federal jury previously convicted DePape of assaulting a federal officer's family member and attempting to kidnap a federal officer. He was sentenced in May 30 years in federal prison.

Although DePape expressed remorse for his actions at the federal sentencing, he did not do so Tuesday. The justices in both cases said they could not ignore the seriousness of the attacks on elected officials.

Judge Dorfman on Tuesday also sentenced DePape to additional years on the other counts, but all sentences, including the federal sentence, will run concurrently. He said if an appeals court overturns his life sentence without parole, he will ask that the case be sent back to his court for resentencing.

Lipson told reporters after the hearing that he would appeal the ruling. “It was a really tragic end to a tragic story,” he said.

Prosecutors, San Francisco Assistant District Attorneys Sean Connolly and Phoebe Maffei, said in a statement that the sentence reflected the seriousness of DePape's conduct and the harm he caused an innocent man.

“In such cases there is no joy. There are no winners,” it said.

The defense argued that the state trial amounted to double jeopardy, explaining that although the state and federal charges were not exactly the same, the two cases stemmed from the same crime. The judge dismissed some of the state charges but retained others not covered by the federal case.

The attack on Paul Pelosi on October 28, 2022 was captured on police camera video just days before the midterm elections and shocked the political world. He suffered head wounds, including a fractured skull, which was repaired with plates and screws.

DePape, a Canadian citizen who has lived in the U.S. for years, admitted during his federal trial that he planned to take Nancy Pelosi hostage, record his interrogation and “break her kneecaps” if she didn't admit to his lies said she recounted “Russiagate,” a reference to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.