OAN’s Abril Elfi
12:00 PM – Saturday, June 22, 2024
David DePape, the man who attacked former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband in 2022, has been found guilty and convicted of five charges.
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On Friday, a California judge found DePape guilty of first-degree burglary, false imprisonment, threatening a family member of a public official, aggravated kidnapping and preventing or dissuading a witness by force or threat.
The verdict for the second trial comes after he already faces a 30-year sentence from a 2023 conviction regarding the attack.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said at a news conference that DePape is facing life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Three of the charges DePape was facing, which were attempted murder, assault of an elder, and assault with a deadly weapon, were dropped by Judge Harry M. Dorfman prior to the trial due to DePape’s defense team claiming that doing so would put him in double jeopardy.
DePape was found guilty in federal court last November of attacking a federal official’s close relative and attempting to kidnap a federal official in connection with the attack.
According to defense lawyer Adam Lipson, DePape was not happy with the jury’s decision after the jury deliberated for almost 12 hours over three days.
“He’s lived a very isolated and lonely life when he kind of just got wrapped up in lot of conspiracy theory-type situations,” Lipson said. “And, you know, he has some mental illness too, so he’s just dealing with that right now.”
“It’s really unfortunate he was charged this way. It was sort of a textbook vindictive prosecution,” Lipson said.
Jenkins later said that her office charged the suspect with what he was guilty of,” and the jury agreed “as clear by the jury’s verdict.”
“So there is no need for any accusations of vindictive prosecution,” Jenkins told reporters. “We are simply trying to do our jobs to make sure he was held accountable for every act that occurred that night that was criminal.”
The 42-year-old man stormed into Pelosi’s home in San Francisco back in October 2022 and assaulted her husband, Paul Pelosi, with a hammer when police arrived.
“Where’s Nancy?” DePape said, confronting Paul Pelosi before the 83-year-old could dial 9-1-1.
Bodycam footage from responding policemen shows a confused DePape opening the door with a hammer before raising it over Paul Pelosi’s head to smash him.
The former Speaker’s husband was then hospitalized and underwent surgery to fix a skull fracture and other injuries caused in the attack.
A sentence has not yet been scheduled.
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