Oct 29, 2024
The man who attacked Paul Pelosi in his home two years ago this week, in an apparent politically motivated delusion, was sentenced to life in prison without parole Tuesday in state court, but his case may still see an appeal.DePape, 44, was convicted on the state's charges in June, which consisted of five felony counts — aggravated kidnapping, false imprisonment, threatening a public official, burglary, and preventing or dissuading a witness by force or threat. The judge had dropped several other charges, including attempted murder, elder abuse, and assault with a deadly weapon, because he had ostensibly already been convicted of similar charges in federal court.Having targeted House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and her husband, DePape was brought up on federal charges as well, and that trial proceeded more quickly. He was convicted on those federal charges in November 2023, and sentenced in May to 30 years in federal prison.Prosecutors say that the double sentencing acts as a kind of insurance policy, making sure that DePape will remain in jail even if he wins an appeal on some charges.Like he did at his federal sentencing, DePape was allowed time to speak in court today prior to the sentence being read. But rather than sounding lucid and apologetic as he did at that May hearing, DePape sounded like a person suffering from an untreated mental illness.As the Associated Press reports, DePape used the time to speak "at length about September 11 being an inside job, his ex-wife being replaced by a body double, and his government-provided attorneys conspiring against him." And, he added, reading from a statement he'd prepared, "I’m a psychic. The more I meditate, the more psychic I get."Defense attorneys' request for a new trial was dismissed, with Judge Harry Dorfman saying, "It’s my intention that Mr. DePape will never get out of prison, he can never be paroled."As legal analyst Steven Clark told NBC Bay Area earlier today, an appeal seems likely in the case. And on appeal, defense attorneys are likely to focus on DePape's mental health, and to question whether the dual federal and state convictions don't amount to double jeopardy — something that the judge in the state trial appeared to want to avoid by dismissing those certain charges."What never came through in this case was Mr. DePape's mental state," Clark tells NBC. "And will an appellate court look at this case and ask why wasn’t his mental health brought to light during this trial to reflect on what he did, whether that affected his behavior?"DePape had put together a "hit list" of targets that included the actor Tom Hanks — for reasons that haven't been explained in court or investigative documents — Nancy Pelosi, Governor Gavin Newsom, his former partner Gypsy Taub, and an obscure academic figure who lives part time in the Bay Area, Dr. Gayle Rubin. Rubin is a feminist theorist who has also studied the gay leather scene in San Francisco, and she's been implicated in conspiracy theorist circles for penning a 1984 essay that attempted to intellectualize pedophilia — something she later tried to clarify in a subsequent essay years later, after her words had repeatedly been misconstrued.Early on the morning of October 28, 2022, DePape broke into the Pelosis' Pacific Heights home, and awoke a confused Paul Pelosi, asking, "Where's Nancy?" Nancy Pelosi was away in Washington at the time.DePape came armed only with zip ties and a hammer, and said he intended to break Mrs. Pelosi's kneecaps if she continued to "lie" about the Democratic agenda, or something. He would end up striking Paul Pelosi once in the skull after the two struggled over the hammer, an assault that was captured on police body-camera footage in the foyer of the home, just after police arrived.Initially, in the months after his arrest, DePape was defiant and unapologetic about the attack on Paul Pelosi, telling a local reporter that he was sorry he "didn't get more of them."A former employer of DePape, who had helped get him out of homelessness in recent years, has said that he believes DePape was radicalized and influenced by right-wing conspiracies by spending hours alone on the internet.This story has been updated throughout following the sentencing.Previously: Paul Pelosi Attacker David DePape Found Guilty In State Trial
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