Police investigators work outside the home of Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in San Francisco, Friday, Oct. 28, 2022. Paul Pelosi, was attacked and severely beaten by an assailant with a hammer who broke into their San Francisco home early Friday, according to people familiar with the investigation. (AP/Eric Risberg)
- David DePape received a life sentence without parole for attacking Nancy Pelosi's husband with a hammer in 2022.
- DePape’s break-in raised fears of political violence, influenced by conspiracy theories like Pizzagate and QAnon.
- Paul Pelosi expressed his ongoing trauma and requested the harshest sentence, calling the assault a life-changing event.
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David DePape, the intruder who broke into the home of Nancy Pelosi two years ago and bludgeoned her husband with a hammer, was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The sentencing by a San Francisco judge in state court brings to an end the legal cases against DePape, whose attack on the Pelosi household days before the 2022 midterm elections raised fears of political violence and underscored the toxic nature of politics in a polarized country. DePape had, in the years before the attack, become immersed in the darker corners of the internet and embraced conspiracy theories like Pizzagate and QAnon.
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DePape, 44, is already serving a 30-year sentence in prison after being convicted of two federal crimes last year.
DePape’s state sentence will be served concurrently with his federal sentence, and he will be held in a state prison, according to the San Francisco district attorney’s office.
The crime occurred in the early morning hours of Oct. 28, 2022. Investigators said that DePape broke into the Pelosi home with a hammer and repeatedly asked “Where’s Nancy?” She was in Washington, D.C., at the time, but DePape found her husband, Paul Pelosi, then 82, asleep in the couple’s bedroom.
By the time police arrived, Pelosi and DePape were standing in the entryway of the home, struggling over the hammer. Just then, DePape took control of the weapon and struck Pelosi, who was left lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood.
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Pelosi underwent surgery for two skull fractures. At the state and federal trials of DePape, Pelosi testified that he suffered from the lingering effects of his injuries.
Pelosi wrote a letter to Judge Harry Dorfman that was read in court by his daughter, Christine, in which he said his “last peaceful sleep” was before DePape broke into his bedroom two years ago.
Pelosi asked the judge for the severest sentence possible and described his continued trauma.
Ever since the attack, he wrote, “not a day goes by that we do not think of this devastating assault, its trauma — or the possibility of future attacks.”
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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
By Tim Arango
c. 2024 The New York Times Company
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