A man who brutally attacked Nancy Pelosi’s husband with a hammer and was sentenced to 30 years in prison has also been convicted of kidnapping and could spend the rest of his life in prison.
David DePape was sentenced last month by a federal judge to 30 years in federal prison after he was found guilty of the 2022 attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of the top Democratic politician.
On Friday, a jury in San Francisco also found DePape guilty of first-degree robbery, false imprisonment of an elderly person, threatening a relative of a public official, dissuading a witness from the charges and aggravated kidnapping.
DePape He was previously convicted of assaulting a relative of a federal official and attempting to kidnap a federal official.
The attack on Pelosi was captured on police body camera video just days before the 2022 midterm elections and sent shockwaves through American politics.
The man, then 82, suffered two head injuries, including a skull fracture, which had to be repaired with plates and screws.
David DePape. Photo: AP
Former Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi. Photo: AP
In a statement, Pelosi’s office said: “Speaker Pelosi and her family remain in awe of her father’s bravery, who once again shone on the witness stand in this trial, just as he did when he saved his own life last night. of the attack.
“For nearly 20 grueling months, Pelosi has demonstrated extraordinary courage and strength every day of her recovery.”
DePape’s public defender, Adam Lipson, said he planned to appeal the verdict.
He called the prosecutor’s decision to file a kidnapping-for-ransom charge during the trial “vindictive.”
Lipson said: “It’s really unfortunate that it was charged in this way. It was kind of a textbook vindictive prosecution.”
“As soon as they found out the attempted murder charge was going to be dismissed, they added this charge.”
Lipson had previously successfully argued that the state trial represented double jeopardy following the federal conviction and, although the courts are different, the cases stem from the same act.
San Francisco Superior Court Judge Harry Dorfman agreed and dismissed state charges of attempted murder, elder abuse and assault with a deadly weapon.
Another judge upheld the decision on appeal.
Lipson said the state verdict meant that after DePape served his 30 years in federal prison, he would be transferred to a California prison “to spend the rest of his life” there.
In his closing arguments, he told jurors that the prosecution did not prove that DePape kidnapped Pelosi with the intent to “demand money or anything valuable from another person,” which is part and parcel of the charge.
However, Assistant District Attorney Phoebe Maffei noted that DePape told a detective, and testified in federal court, that he planned to obtain a video of Mrs. Pelosi confessing to what he claimed were crimes and post it on the Internet. .
Maffei said: “There is inherent value in a video of the Speaker of the House [of Representatives] confessing to crimes in his own home.
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Earlier this week, Maffei described details of the attack in which DePape broke into the politician’s home, entered his bedroom, “held him hostage with a hammer, threatened him, threatened his wife and attempted to kill him.”
Also during the proceedings the jury was told that DePape lived a lonely and isolated life and had sunk “down the rabbit hole of propaganda and conspiracy theories.”
During the week, the judge also expelled DePape’s ex-partner from the public gallery, accusing her of attempting to tamper with the jury.
Gypsy Taub was handing out pieces of paper outside the courtroom with the address of a conspiracy theory website.
Cards were also found in a nearby women’s bathroom with the website address scrawled on the wall.
This story originally appeared on News.sky.com read the full story
