A California jury found David DePape guilty of all charges in his state trial for the hammer attack on Paul Pelosi, following his conviction in federal court for the 2022 attack, prosecutors said.
The jury began deliberations Tuesday afternoon in San Francisco, adjourned court on Wednesday and reached a verdict Friday afternoon.
Depape, 44, is charged with false imprisonment of an elderly person by violence or intimidation, burglary, intimidation of a family member of a public servant, tampering with a witness by violence or intimidation and aggravated kidnapping, which carry a sentence of life in prison without parole.
Sentencing will be scheduled at a later date.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said the guilty plea means DePape “will pay for his heinous crimes against the Pelosi family and our democracy.”
“I want to thank all law enforcement agencies who worked with us to ensure justice was achieved,” Jenkins said in a statement Friday. “I also want to thank the family for their courage and perseverance. I hope this sentence will help them recover from this tragic ordeal and provide them with some closure.”
DePape’s public defender, Adam Lipson, said he was disappointed with the verdict.
“I don’t believe this was a kidnapping for ransom and I think it’s really unfortunate that he’s been charged in this way,” Lipson told reporters, adding that his client lived a “very isolated” life and had “been embroiled in a lot of conspiracy-type situations.”
DePape did not testify during the three-week state trial, in which he has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
During the trial, the judge dismissed three other charges DePape had originally pleaded guilty to — attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and elder abuse — after his defense argued they amounted to double jeopardy because he had been convicted in a federal trial for assaulting the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to the Associated Press.
According to the Associated Press, DePape’s public defender had argued there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him of threatening and kidnapping the family of a public servant.
“There are no significant disputes about the facts of this case, but there are significant disputes about which charges apply and which charges do not apply,” Lipson told jurors in his closing argument, according to the Associated Press.
“The plain facts of this case are horrific in and of themselves, without embellishment,” Assistant District Attorney Phoebe Maffei told jurors during closing arguments, according to the Associated Press.
“David DePape broke into the home where an 82-year-old man was sleeping, entered the bedroom and held the man hostage with a hammer, threatened the man and attempted to kill the man’s wife,” Maffei said, according to the Associated Press.
According to KGO, Paul Pelosi testified at his state trial that on the night of the attack, DePape woke him up by asking, “Are you Paul Pelosi?” and was armed with a hammer and zip ties.
“He seemed very committed to what he was trying to do,” Paul Pelosi said, according to KGO.
House Speaker Paul Pelosi spoke about the impact of the attack, saying he has fallen twice since it happened and that it would be better for his mental health not to talk about it, according to KGO.
The state sentence follows a federal sentence handed down by DePape in May, when he was convicted of holding former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hostage and attempting to attack her husband with a hammer.
A judge sentenced DePape to 30 years in federal prison on May 17, but the sentence was reopened after prosecutors noted DePape was never given a chance to formally address the court during his sentencing. He was given another 30-year sentence at a hearing two weeks later, during which he apologized for the attack.
“I’m sorry for what I did, especially what I did to Paul Pelosi,” he said at his resentencing hearing, according to KGO. “Once I realized Nancy Pelosi wasn’t home, I should have left the house.”
DePape’s lawyers filed a brief notice of appeal following the initial ruling in the federal trial.
A federal jury convicted DePape in November 2023 of attempted kidnapping of a federal officer or employee and assault of a family member of a federal officer.
DePape admitted in his federal trial that he was seeking out Nancy Pelosi to question her about Russian influence in the 2016 election and intended to take her hostage, but when he broke into her San Francisco home on October 28, 2022, only Paul Pelosi was there.
Representative Paul Pelosi said on the stand in the federal trial that DePape repeatedly asked, “Where’s Nancy?”
DePape hit the then 82-year-old Paul Pelosi with a hammer, causing serious injuries including a fractured skull, but said in court that “Paul Pelosi was not my target.”
“It’s unfortunate that he got hurt,” DePape said at his federal hearing. “My plans were basically ruined, so I reacted.”
The incident was captured on body camera footage of officers who responded to the scene.
Paul Pelosi was hospitalized for six days after the attack and underwent surgery to repair a fractured skull and severe injuries to his right arm and hand.
