Man Who Attacked Paul Pelosi Sentenced to Life Without Parole

In this courtroom sketch, David DePape, accused in the attack on Paul Pelosi, appears at a hearing in San Francisco on Nov. 15, 2022. Vicki Behringer/Reuters

A California judge has sentenced the man who was convicted of attacking the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) with a hammer in 2022 to life in prison without parole.

In June, a San Francisco jury found David DePape guilty of aggravated kidnapping, first-degree burglary, and false imprisonment of an elder.

DePape pleaded guilty to those charges.

In May, a federal judge sentenced the 44-year-old DePape to 30 years in prison for federal assault and kidnapping of a federal official.

Judge Harry Dorfman of the Superior Court of San Francisco County rejected DePape’s attorney’s request for a new trial.

“It’s my intention that Mr. DePape will never get out of prison; he can never be paroled,” Dorfman said.

One of DePape’s attorneys asked that the judge take into consideration DePape’s mental health, which made him more susceptible to the influence of online propaganda.

DePape’s 2:23 a.m. attack on Paul Pelosi in the Pelosis’ San Francisco home on Oct. 28, 2022, took place a few days before the midterm elections, according to the criminal complaint.

When the San Francisco police arrived at the Pelosi residence, according to an affidavit, “Pelosi and DePape were both holding a hammer with one hand and DePape had his other hand holding onto Pelosi’s forearm.”

After officers asked both Pelosi and DePape to drop the hammer, DePape pulled the hammer from Pelosi’s hand and struck him in the head.

Officers restrained DePape and investigated the scene, finding that a glass door had been broken.

They also found zip ties, a roll of tape, rope, a hammer, a pair of rubber gloves, and a journal.

When Pelosi recovered from his injuries and was able to speak with police, he said he had never seen DePape before.

DePape later stated that he meant to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage for political interrogation, stating that if she told the truth, he would let her go; however, if she did not, he was “going to break her kneecaps,” police reported DePape as saying.

He told officers that he “was certain that Nancy would not have told the truth” and claimed that she was the “leader of the pack of lies told by the Democratic Party,” according to court filings.

He admitted that he broke into the house through the glass door with a hammer. He then asked for Nancy Pelosi, and was told by Paul Pelosi that she was not present,” according to the court record.

DePape said when Paul Pelosi moved away to call 911, he didn’t run because he believed “he was fighting tyranny without the option of surrender.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.