California jury convicts Paul Pelosi attacker on state charges

A San Francisco jury convicted Paul Pelosi attacker David DePape on Friday on state charges related to the attack, including burglary, false imprisonment of an elder, aggravated kidnapping, and threatening a family member of a public official.

DePape, who hit Pelosi with a hammer in October of 2022, has already been convicted and sentenced to more than 30 years in federal prison for the same attack. But the federal charges included assaulting a federal official’s family member and attempting to kidnap a federal official. 

Defense lawyers for DePape claimed that their client was guilty of three charges, but that there should not have been enough evidence to convict him on threatening a family member of a public official and aggravated kidnapping, per the Associated Press. Paul Pelosi is the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“Speaker Pelosi and her family remain in awe of their Pop’s bravery, which shone through again on the witness stand in this trial just as it did when he saved his own life on the night of the attack,” Pelosi’s office told the outlet. “For nearly 20 grueling months, Mr. Pelosi has demonstrated extraordinary courage and fortitude every day of his recovery.”

Defense lawyers have also tried to argue that the state case is a double jeopardy, because it stems from the same incident, even though the charges are different. 

Body camera footage of the incident saw police arrive at Pelosi's San Francisco home to find the pair both clutching a hammer. During the course of conversing with police, DePape wrestled the hammer from Pelosi and struck him with the tool, resulting in a skull fracture.

DePape has also admitted to planning to kidnap Nancy Pelosi and interrogate her, and possibly "break her kneecaps" if she did not admit to what he believed were lies about Russiagate.

“The plain facts of this case are terrifying by themselves without embellishment,” Assistant District Attorney Phoebe Maffei said. “David DePape broke into the home of an 82-year-old man while he slept, entered his bedroom, held him hostage with a hammer, threatened him, threatened his wife and attempted to kill him.”