The person convicted of making an attempt to kidnap former U.S. Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi and violently attacking her husband with a hammer in an October 2022 assault issued an apology on Tuesday earlier than a federal decide once more sentenced him to 30 years in jail.
Carrying his orange jail jumpsuit and studying from a white sheet of paper whereas standing subsequent to his attorneys, DePape stated he felt “horrible for hurting Mr. Pelosi,” and pledged to “by no means do something violent like that to anybody ever once more.”
“I’m sorry for what I did, particularly what I did to Paul Pelosi,” DePape stated. “I ought to have by no means damage him.”
DePape had already been sentenced to 3 a long time in federal jail by Choose Jacqueline Scott Corley throughout a Could 17 listening to that ought to have concluded a high-profile case of political extremism.
However Scott Corley agreed to reopen the sentencing listening to after federal prosecutors famous that she had forgotten to provide DePape, 44, a possibility to make a press release. Federal felony guidelines of process require the courtroom to “handle the defendant personally to be able to allow the defendant to talk or current any info to mitigate the sentence.”
Scott Corley apologized to DePape, the attorneys and victims initially of the Tuesday listening to, saying she was “actually sorry for my mistake.”
“I need to apologize for you having to be right here this morning,” she stated. “It’s fully on me.”
The decide pledged to put aside her authentic sentencing and contemplate DePape’s assertion in her new ruling, earlier than in the end reimposing the 30-year sentence.
Scott Corley known as the crime “unprecedented” and stated it was crucial to discourage “copycats” and guarantee they get the message that “you can not go and break into the speaker of the Home’s residence and maintain her partner hostage after which assault him. Or any politician for that matter.”
“The message needs to be on the market that it’s completely unacceptable to our democracy,” she stated.
The Pelosis’ daughter, Christine Pelosi, had already learn victim-impact statements by her mother and father throughout the authentic sentencing.
In her letter, Nancy Pelosi stated her husband continues to endure bodily and emotionally from the assault, and that the violent incident “has had a devastating impact on three generations of our household.”
DePape had traveled from his Richmond, Calif., residence into San Francisco on Oct. 28, 2022, in a conspiracy-fueled plan to carry Nancy Pelosi hostage and “break her kneecaps” if she didn’t admit to corruption and different bogus claims of human trafficking and baby abuse.
He carried a backpack stuffed with zip ties, tape, rope and a hammer, which he used alongside along with his personal physique pressure to smash his manner into the home. However as a substitute of discovering Nancy Pelosi, who was in Washington on the time, DePape wandered by means of the house earlier than stumbling upon a sleeping Paul Pelosi within the couple’s bed room.
“The door opened and a really massive man got here in, with a hammer in a single hand and a few ties within the different hand,” Paul Pelosi testified throughout the November 2023 trial. “And he stated, ‘The place’s Nancy?’ And I believe that’s what woke me up.”
Paul Pelosi, then 82, was in a position to stall DePape lengthy sufficient to dial 911 on his cellphone that he stored within the toilet. When police arrived, the 2 males had been struggling over DePape’s hammer. Prosecutors confirmed jurors graphic police body-camera video of DePape bludgeoning Paul Pelosi, fracturing his cranium and significantly injuring his proper arm and left hand.
A jury convicted DePape after a four-day trial on tried kidnapping and assault expenses that had been narrowly targeted on whether or not the federal crimes had been straight tied to then-Speaker Pelosi’s official duties in Congress. His federal public defenders, Jodi Linker and Angela Chuang, had tried to argue their shopper was motivated not by Nancy Pelosi’s legislative function in Congress, however by admittedly weird conspiracy theories that politicians and different public figures had been engaged in baby trafficking and sexual abuse.
In his assertion to the courtroom, DePape stated he ought to have left the home instantly after realizing Nancy Pelosi was not at residence, and added, “Trying again, I can see I used to be not doing nicely.”
DePape additionally faces a number of a long time in state jail on separate, native expenses of tried homicide, assault with a lethal weapon, elder abuse, housebreaking and threats to a public official and her household. A jury was chosen in that case final week, and opening arguments are set to start Wednesday in San Francisco.
Linker and Chuang requested for a extra lenient 14-year federal jail time period, saying their shopper has since been recognized with an undisclosed psychological sickness and that he was traumatized from a long-term romantic relationship with the mom of his two organic kids.
Linker and Chuang instantly filed an enchantment of the 30-year sentence and argued towards the brand new listening to in a sharply worded courtroom submitting that claimed the sentencing problem ought to be resolved within the enchantment course of. In addition they requested a brand new decide, accusing Scott Corley of bias towards DePape when she expressed “sturdy views” on the crimes and their affect on the security of public officers throughout the authentic listening to.
In addition they stated the listening to was an unfair burden on DePape’s attorneys in his state trial, and that the rescheduled sentencing listening to would reduce into much-needed time for his or her shopper to seek the advice of along with his new authorized group.
DePape had confronted a mixed 50 years in federal jail: 30 years on the assault cost and 20 years for the tried kidnapping. Scott Corley sentenced him to the utmost time period on each counts, however ordered him to serve them concurrently for a complete of 30 years. He’ll get credit score for the roughly 19 months he has spent in state custody.
He faces deportation to Canada upon his launch.
