OAN’s James Meyers
1:24 PM – Friday, May 17, 2024
David DePape, the man who attacked Democrat Representative Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, with a hammer, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.
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In a letter to the court, Paul Pelosi detailed how he is still traumatized by the 2022 attack, which happened when DePape purportedly broke into Pelosi’s home in Pacific Heights on October 28th, 2022.
Pelosi wrote: “The defendant severely damaged the nerves in my left hand. My forehand was ‘de-gloved’ exposing raw nerves and blood vessels.”
“Surgeries and treatments mostly healed the skin, but underneath I still feel pinched nerves in my left hand. This makes basic tasks like using buttons, cutlery and simple tools more difficult,” he added, according to CBS.
The husband of Nancy Pelosi also said that he now walks more slowly, has severe difficulty with balance, gets headaches, and for a long period of time struggled to sleep alone at home because he “kept remembering the defendant breaking into my house.”
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice requested a 40 year prison sentence on charges of attempted kidnapping of a federal officer or employee and assault of an immediate family member of a federal official.
Nancy said in her own letter that she was requesting a “very long” sentence for DePape, and added that the incident left her with “great fear and deep pain.”
Prosecutors wrote in court documents: “There is nothing about the history and characteristics of the defendant that warrant leniency.”
According to local news station KRON, DePape admitted, and bragged, that he knew what he was doing.
However, the attackers’ attorneys requested a 14-year prison sentence, citing DePape’s “abusive, long-term relationship with a partner who exploited his innate vulnerabilities and immersed him in a world of extreme beliefs where reality is not reality.”
“The violent lessons that the defendant wanted to teach are not permitted in this country,” U.S. Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey wrote in his sentencing memorandum.
“Defendant intended to promote a federal crime of terrorism and therefore, the terrorism enhancement should apply here.”
The assault was caught on police body cam footage after Paul called police for help on October 28th, 2022.
The congresswoman’s husband was left with a fractured skull and other injuries as well.
Days after the assault took place, DePape admitted to police he was there to try to kidnap then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Paul Pelosi testified at DePape’s trial, saying that he had been awakened by DePape bursting into the bedroom, asking, “Where’s Nancy?” He responded by saying that she was in Washington. Soon after, DePape told Paul that he would tie him up while they waited for her.
“It was a tremendous sense of shock to recognize that somebody had broken into the house, and looking at him and looking at the hammer and the ties, I recognized that I was in serious danger, so I tried to stay as calm as possible,” Pelosi told jurors.
During his testimony at the trial, DePape gave a tearful apology to Pelosi for harming him.
“He was never my target and I’m sorry he got hurt,” DePape said.
“I reacted because my plan was basically ruined.”
Additionally, DePape told investigators that if Nancy Pelosi told “the truth,” he planned to “let her go, and if she “lied” he was going to “break her kneecaps,” according to the criminal complaint against him.
Furthermore, prosecutors said he had rope and zip ties with him, and detectives found additional body cameras, a computer, and a tablet, which included a list of other prominent figures who he allegedly planned to target.
DePape is also being charged in state court with assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, and residential burglary. Jury selection for the state case is expected on May 22nd.
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