Man who attacked Nancy Pelosi’s husband is convicted in California trial

David DePape was found guilty Friday on five counts by the state of California for breaking into Nancy Pelosi’s home in 2022 and beating her husband with a hammer.

The verdict in the state trial ended a case that had raised fears of politically motivated violence in a divided America and reflected some of the darkest currents in the country’s politics. In the years before the attack, Mr. DePape had become immersed in online conspiracy theories such as Pizzagate and QAnon, and in the vicious rhetoric that right-wing figures had used for years against their opponents, including Ms. Pelosi.

The convictions by a state jury in a San Francisco courtroom followed Mr. DePape’s convictions in federal court last year that resulted in a 30-year prison sentence. On Friday, he was found guilty of first-degree burglary, false imprisonment of an elder, threatening the family of a public official, kidnapping for ransom with bodily harm and deterring a witness by force or threat.

Mr. DePape, 44, now faces a life sentence without parole in state prison.

Throughout the two trials, he and his lawyers never disputed the evidence against him. In police interviews shortly after the October 2022 incident, he admitted to breaking into Mrs. Pelosi’s home and attacking her husband, Paul Pelosi. He did the same in a jailhouse interview with a local television station and on the witness stand in his federal trial.

His lawyer in the case, Adam Lipson of the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, told the jury in his closing argument on Tuesday that the group should find Mr. DePape guilty on some of the charges. But Mr. Lipson tried to convince jurors that the prosecution had not proven other charges beyond a reasonable doubt. In particular, he disputed that Mr. DePape was guilty of kidnapping Mr. Pelosi because he did not tie up his victim or try to extort a ransom.

Mr. Lipson focused on Mr. DePape’s mental state at the time of the attack, arguing that his client was so deeply immersed in isolation and conspiracy theories that he embarked on a nonsensical, ill-conceived plan to interrogate Ms. Pelosi. Mr. DePape then planned to visit former Vice President Mike Pence, actor Tom Hanks, California Governor Gavin Newsom and others to demand answers about a child rape conspiracy that he said was widespread in the United States.

“It was completely absurd,” Lipson said of his client’s search. “He packed a bag with some computers, video games, goji berries, a few thousand dollars and a hammer and thought he was going to get the Speaker of the House to confess to crimes.”

Phoebe Maffei, an assistant district attorney in San Francisco, painted a far grimmer picture. She argued that Mr. DePape conducted months of elaborate research before attempting to kill Mr. Pelosi in a “reign of terror.” She said Mr. DePape smashed Mr. Pelosi’s skull with a hammer and damaged Mr. Pelosi’s left hand so badly that it no longer has proper use.

“He has ongoing balance issues, fainting spells, problems with mobility,” Ms. Maffei said. “Mr. Pelosi almost died because of the injuries he sustained.”

In the federal trial, DePape’s public defenders argued a narrow defense: The charges were false because he did not target Pelosi because of her official duties as Speaker of the House of Representatives, but because he believed her to be part of a corrupt plot by liberal elites to destroy American freedom.

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

“Speaker Pelosi and her family remain in awe of her father’s bravery, which was demonstrated again on the witness stand in this trial, just as it was when he saved his own life the night of the attack,” the Pelosi family said in a statement released by Ms. Pelosi’s office on Friday. “For nearly 20 grueling months, Mr. Pelosi demonstrated extraordinary courage and strength on every day of his recovery.”

Mr. DePape, who was 42 at the time of the crime, is a Canadian citizen who has lived illegally in the Bay Area for decades. For years he was in a relationship with Gypsy Taub, a well-known San Francisco activist known for her nude demonstrations, and the couple had two children. But as their relationship fell apart, Mr. DePape became increasingly reclusive, living for a time under a tree in a park in Berkeley, California, and delving deeper into the dark corners of the internet.

Harry M. Dorfman, the judge presiding over the case, ejected Ms. Taub from the courtroom on Tuesday after the court’s cartoonist found a flyer Ms. Taub had left in a women’s restroom claiming Mr. DePape’s innocence. Because the jury had used the same restroom, Mr. Dorfman questioned each one to see if anyone had seen the material before allowing the case to proceed.

After testimony began in the state trial, Mr. Dorfman dismissed three of the most serious charges: attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and elder abuse. He sided with defense attorneys who argued that those charges amounted to double jeopardy because of the federal case. The judge allowed five other charges to stand, including false imprisonment, burglary and aggravated kidnapping.

In the early hours of Oct. 28, 2022, just days before the midterm elections, Mr. DePape broke into the Pelosi residence in San Francisco’s upscale Pacific Heights neighborhood using a large hammer and zip ties. In police interviews and on the witness stand, he said he was on a mission to kidnap Ms. Pelosi, who was then Speaker of the House and second in line to the president. After entering the home, he repeatedly shouted, “Where’s Nancy?”

Ms Pelosi was in Washington, but her husband Paul, then 82, was asleep in the couple’s upstairs bedroom. Mr Pelosi was awakened by the intruder and was terrified that his life was in danger. However, he was able to secretly call 911 from his bathroom without alerting Mr DePape.

When police officers arrived, DePape and Pelosi were standing in the lobby, each with one hand on the gavel. What happened next was captured on footage from the officers’ body-worn cameras: DePape managed to wrest the gavel away and then slammed it onto Pelosi’s head, causing him to fall to the ground and a pool of blood to form around him.

Mr Pelosi, who suffered two skull fractures and spent six days in hospital, described the traumatic events on the witness stand at each of the trials. He said the attack was “so traumatic for my family” and described how he was still in pain and undergoing physical therapy. “I just tried to put it out of my mind,” he told jurors in the federal trial.

At his sentencing in the federal case, Mr. DePape apologized for his crimes and said he had suffered from mental deterioration. “I should have left the house when I learned Nancy Pelosi wasn’t there,” he told the judge. “I will never do anything so violent again.”

James Dobbins reported from San Francisco.