Canadian David DePape gets life in prison in the second trial in connection with the attack on Paul Pelosi

The man sentenced to 30 years in prison for attacking the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a hammer in their California home was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole after a separate state process.

A San Francisco jury found David DePape guilty in June of charges including aggravated kidnapping, first-degree burglary and false imprisonment of an elderly person.

Before handing down the sentence, Judge Harry Dorfman rejected arguments from DePape’s lawyers that he should get a new trial for the 2022 attack on Paul Pelosi, who was 82 years old at the time.

“It is my intention that Mr. DePape never gets out of prison, he can never be released on parole,” Dorfman said.

DePape is a Canadian citizen who grew up in Powell River, BC, but has lived in the US for many years.

Before sentencing, defense attorney Adam Lipson asked Dorfman to consider DePape’s mental health and isolation, which made him susceptible to online propaganda.

“This is a man who, up until his activation, has always been a peaceful and law-abiding person,” Lipson said.

DePape told the court he is “psychic.”

When given the opportunity to address the court prior to his sentencing, DePape, dressed in prison orange and with his brown hair in a ponytail, spoke at length about September 11 as an inside job, replacing his ex-wife with a body double. and his government-provided lawyers who conspired against him.

“I’m psychic,” DePape told the court as he read from sheets of paper. “The more I meditate, the clearer I become.”

In a letter read in court by the victim’s daughter, Christine Pelosi, Paul Pelosi called for the maximum sentence, saying he had abruptly ended the “last peaceful sleep” “when the defendant forcibly entered my home, burst into my bedroom and stood prone. my bed with a hammer and zip ties demanding my wife and shouting ‘Where’s Nancy?’

He said the attack left him with bumps on his head, a metal plate in it, dizziness and nerve damage in his left hand. Sleeping alone at home brings back memories of the attack, he said.

Previously, a federal jury convicted DePape of assaulting a family member of a federal official and attempting to kidnap a federal official. In May, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison in an unusual hearing on the criminal case that resulted from a miscarriage of justice.

The sentence in the state trial will run concurrently with the federal sentence.

DePape’s attorneys have said the state trial was doubly jeopardized after his federal conviction. Even though the criminal cases were not exactly the same, the two cases stem from the same fact, they argued.

The judge dismissed some state charges but upheld others that were not covered by the federal case.

The October 28, 2022, attack on Paul Pelosi was captured on police body camera footage just days before the midterm elections and shocked the political world. He suffered head wounds, including a skull fracture that was repaired with plates and screws. His right arm and hand were also injured.

DePape admitted during his federal trial that he planned to take Nancy Pelosi hostage, record his interrogation of her and “break her kneecaps” if she did not give in to the lies he said he told about “Russiagate,” a reference to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.