Man who broke into Nancy Pelosi’s home apologizes for attacking her husband

David DePape, who was convicted of federal crimes for breaking into Nancy Pelosi’s apartment two years ago and then beating her husband with a hammer, apologized Tuesday for the attack and expressed regret as a judge briefly considered a lighter prison sentence.

“I should have left the House when I found out Nancy Pelosi wasn’t there,” he said. “I will never do anything so violent again.”

Mr. DePape made the remarks in federal court in San Francisco, where the judge presiding over the case resumed sentencing proceedings two weeks after initially sentencing Mr. DePape to 30 years in a federal prison.

Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley acknowledged after the verdict that she had made a mistake in not asking Mr. DePape beforehand if he wanted to make a statement. Judge Corley called the parties back to court on Tuesday to give Mr. DePape an opportunity to speak.

The judge seemed unimpressed by DePape’s apology. After hearing from him on Tuesday, she re-sentenced DePape to 30 years in prison, the maximum sentence allowed by law.

Mr. DePape was found guilty in November of two federal crimes: attempted kidnapping of a federal official and assault on an immediate family member of a federal official.

Mr DePape said he was in a dark period when he committed the crimes, but his mental state has since improved. “I have been able to reconnect with my mother and other family members, which has allowed me to move on,” he told the court.

Tuesday’s hearing took place during a break in Mr. DePape’s criminal trial, which began last week with jury selection. In state court, Mr. DePape faces multiple crimes in connection with the attack, including attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and elder abuse. Opening arguments are expected to begin Wednesday morning. If convicted in that trial, Mr. DePape faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

As she did at the first sentencing hearing on Tuesday, Judge Corley said her sentence reflected both the seriousness of the crime and the need for deterrence. politically motivated violence. She said she wanted to ensure that “there are no copycats.”

“The message must be clear that this is absolutely unacceptable for our democracy,” Judge Corley said.

After Mr. DePape was initially sentenced on May 17, his public defenders quickly filed an appeal in federal court, challenging the judge’s rehearing, arguing that the case should immediately go to an appellate court and that if a new sentencing occurs, it should be handled by a different judge “to preserve the appearance of justice.”

“The court cannot reasonably be expected to abandon its previously expressed conclusions in order to fairly and appropriately re-sentence Mr. DePape,” they wrote in a legal document.

The attack on Pelosi’s family home in San Francisco occurred in the early hours of October 22, less than three weeks before the midterm elections, raising fears of politically motivated violence at a particularly divisive time in America.

Mr. DePape, then 42, broke into the House through a back door to chase Ms. Pelosi, who was then Speaker of the House and second in line to the presidency. After entering the House, Mr. DePape repeatedly shouted, “Where’s Nancy?”

Ms. Pelosi was in Washington, DC, and Mr. DePape instead encountered Paul Pelosi, who was sleeping in the couple’s bedroom. At the trial last year, Mr. Pelosi, who was 82 at the time of the attack, recounted how he had managed to secretly call 911 from his bathroom. When police officers arrived, they found Mr. Pelosi and Mr. DePape standing in the foyer, each with one hand on a large gavel that Mr. DePape had brought with him.

At that moment, according to court testimony and police body-worn camera footage, DePape managed to grab the gavel and hit Pelosi on the head, leaving him bleeding on the ground. Pelosi required surgery for two skull fractures and spent six days in the hospital.

A spokesman for Ms Pelosi declined to comment on the new conviction on Tuesday, saying her office would wait to comment further until the verdict in the state case.

Mr. DePape was a loner, living on the fringes of society in the San Francisco Bay Area. At one point he slept under a tree in a park in Berkeley, California. In the years before the attack, he spent a lot of time reading online conspiracy theories such as Pizzagate and QAnon.

Before handing down the sentence on Tuesday, Judge Corley acknowledged that Mr. DePape had no criminal or violent history before breaking into the Pelosi home. The judge told him he was “particularly vulnerable” to what he heard in the media.