(AFP) – A man who attacked the elderly husband of former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a hammer was sentenced to life in prison without parole Tuesday by a California state court, the district attorney general’s office said. David DePape, who broke into the couple’s San Francisco home and bludgeoned Paul Pelosi in a horrifying attack captured on police bodycam, was already serving a 30-year federal sentence for the incident.
A San Francisco judge sentenced DePape, 44, “to a term of life in prison without the possibility of parole following his conviction on aggravated kidnapping and other charges,” the San Francisco district attorney general’s office said in a statement. At the time of the October 2022 assault, Democrat Nancy Pelosi was second in line to the presidency and a regular target of outlandish far-right conspiracy theories.
DePape — a Canadian former nudist activist who supported himself with occasional carpentry work — had initially planned to target Nancy Pelosi. But he instead encountered her then-82-year-old husband. During what DePape told officers was a “pretty amicable” conversation with Paul Pelosi, the husband managed to call for help from law enforcement officers.
When police arrived moments later, DePape hit Pelosi with a hammer before officers rushed at him and took the weapon away. Pelosi was knocked unconscious and had his skull fractured. He spent almost a week in a hospital, where he underwent surgery. Nancy Pelosi was not at home the night of the attack.
Moments before his sentencing Tuesday, DePape delivered a rambling, tearful statement about conspiracy theories including the 9/11 attacks and “evil magic murder rituals,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle. He did not apologize to the Pelosi family, the newspaper said. DePape’s lawyers have previously said they intend to appeal.
He “will now face justice for the violence that he wrought as a result of overheated dangerous and divisive partisan rhetoric spewed online and in person,” San Francisco district attorney Brooke Jenkins said in the statement. “While some politicians made light of this incident and joked about it to score political points, this was a horrific attack on one of our leaders, a family and our democracy. We must all do our part to stand for justice and the rule of law.”
© 2024 AFP
