David DePape was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison Friday for breaking into former US Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco dwelling and bludgeoning her husband, Paul Pelosi, with a hammer.
DePape, 44, was convicted of breaking into the Pelosi’s San Francisco dwelling in Pacific Heights and finishing up the bloody assault on the then-82-year-old on Oct. 28, 2022 in November final yr.
The federal Division of Justice had requested for a 40 yr jail time period on fees of tried kidnapping of a federal officer or worker and assault of an instantaneous member of the family of a federal official for DePape.
Prosecutors wrote in court docket paperwork: “There may be nothing concerning the historical past and traits of the defendant that warrant leniency. The defendant has admitted — certainly bragged — that he knew what he was doing,” in accordance with local news station KRON.
In a letter to court docket revealed Friday, Nancy Pelosi requested a “very lengthy” sentence for the attacker, and added the assault had left her with “nice concern and deep ache.”
Paul Pelosi additionally wrote a letter to court docket forward of the sentencing during which he detailed how he’s nonetheless badly affected by the assault.
He wrote: “The defendant severely broken the nerves in my left hand. My forehand was ‘de-gloved’ exposing uncooked nerves and blood vessels.
“Surgical procedures and coverings principally healed the pores and skin, however beneath I nonetheless really feel pinched nerves in my left hand. This makes primary duties like utilizing buttons, cutlery and easy instruments harder,” according to CBS.
Paul additionally mentioned he walks slowly, has problem with steadiness, will get horrible complications and for a very long time had hassle sleeping alone at dwelling as a result of he as a result of “saved remembering the defendant breaking into my home.”
DePape’s attorneys requested a 14-year jail sentence, citing their consumer’s “abusive, long-term relationship with a companion who exploited his innate vulnerabilities and immersed him in a world of maximum beliefs the place actuality is just not actuality.”
The brutal assault was captured on police bodycam after Paul was in a position to increase the alarm and summon the police throughout the weird incident, which befell simply days earlier than the midterm elections and despatched shockwaves through the political world.
The congresswoman’s husband was left with a fractured skull and different severe accidents.
DePape — who had immersed himself in web conspiracy theories — later admitted to police he was there to attempt to kidnap then Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Paul Pelosi testified at DePape’s trial he had been woke up by the person bursting into the bed room and asking, “The place’s Nancy?” When he responded that she was in Washington, DePape mentioned he would tie him up whereas they waited for her.
“It was an amazing sense of shock to acknowledge that any person had damaged into the home, and taking a look at him and searching on the hammer and the ties, I acknowledged that I used to be in severe hazard, so I attempted to remain as calm as attainable,” Pelosi instructed jurors.
DePape, who took the stand throughout the week-long trial, tearfully apologized for harming Paul Pelosi.
“He was by no means my goal and I’m sorry he bought damage,” DePape mentioned.
“I reacted as a result of my plan was mainly ruined.”
As an alternative, DePape mentioned, he planned to get the former Speaker and other famous “targets” to confess to being members of what he believed was a a cabal of Devil-worshiping Democrat elites who run a world pedophile intercourse ring — completley unfounded theories he had absorbed from the fringes of the web.
DePape instructed investigators that if Nancy Pelosi instructed “the reality”, he deliberate to “let her go, and if she “lied” he was going to “break her kneecaps,” in accordance with the prison grievance in opposition to him.
DePape additionally instructed jurors he had planned to wear an inflatable unicorn costume and report his interrogation of the Democratic speaker, then add it on-line.
Prosecutors mentioned he had rope and zip ties with him, and detectives discovered physique cameras, a pc and a pill, which included a listing of different outstanding figures whom he had deliberate to focus on.
DePape can be charged in state court docket with assault with a lethal weapon, elder abuse and residential housebreaking, amongst different felonies. Jury choice for the state case is anticipated on Might 22.
