Federal prosecutors recommend a 40-year sentence for the man convicted of attempting to kidnap former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and assaulting her husband with a hammer after he broke into the couple's home. in San Francisco in 2022.
In a sentencing memorandum filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, prosecutors said David DePape has not taken responsibility for his crimes and has shown no remorse. They also argued that his sentence should include an enhancement for terrorism.
Prosecutors called DePape's crimes “an assault on our democracy and fundamental values.”
“At a time when extremism has led to attacks against public and elected officials, this case presents a moment to speak to others who harbor ideologically motivated violent dreams and plans,” prosecutors wrote.
DePape's attorneys, federal public defenders Jodi Linker and Angela Chuang, requested a 14-year prison sentence, citing their client's “long-term, abusive relationship with a partner who exploited his innate vulnerabilities and immersed him in a world of beliefs.” extremes where reality is not reality.”
“His influence began in a formative and critical period of his life and extended far beyond the end of their relationship, leaving him completely unmoored in the years leading up to the crime, when he became further radicalized through his obsessive consumption of media that amplified extreme beliefs. “DePape’s attorneys wrote in their sentencing memorandum.
They also argued that DePape has shown remorse for his actions, citing his trial testimony “during which he explained that he felt 'really scared by [Mr. Pelosi’s] life.'”
The sentencing is scheduled for Friday.
During DePape's trial last year, assistant U.S. attorneys Laura Vartain Horn and Helen Gilbert laid out the details of DePape's “violent plot” the night he traveled from his East Bay residence to the Pelosis' home. in Pacific Heights in October 2022.
DePape broke into the couple's home around 2 a.m. on Oct. 28, planning to take Pelosi hostage and break her kneecaps if she lied to him, prosecutors said in their memo. Pelosi was not home, but her husband, Paul, was and called 911.
When police arrived, Pelosi opened the door and DePape violently punched Pelosi three times, twice in the head, before police could subdue him, prosecutors said.
In court, prosecutors showed jurors graphic police body camera video showing DePape punching Pelosi, fracturing the then-–Skull of an 82-year-old man and severely injuring his right arm and left hand.
“This is the moment where Paul Pelosi ends up attacked in the middle of the night in his own home, lying on the floor in a pool of his own blood,” Gilbert said in his closing argument as a still image of the moment before the attack. was shown on the courtroom screens.
Jurors heard portions of a police interview in which DePape said he considered Speaker Pelosi the “leader of the Democratic caucus” and said he would “break her kneecaps” if she did not admit to corruption and other unfounded allegations of human trafficking and Child abuse by public figures. He told the official that Pelosi would have to get to Congress, where other lawmakers could see the “damn consequences of being the most evil damn people on the planet.”
DePape's lawyers argued that their client was inspired by elaborate and unfounded conspiracy theories that may have seemed “untrue” but were nonetheless his deeply held beliefs.
Pelosi's home was just the first stop in a cross-country plan to target other powerful people in the United States who he believed were involved in conspiracy theories of criminal activity similar to QAnon, Chuang said. His goal was to “eradicate the corruption of the ruling class, the cabal, stop the sexual abuse of children and expose the truth to everyone.”
The judge He spent a day deliberating on the two federal charges before finding DePape guilty of attempted kidnapping of a federal official or employee and assault of an immediate family member of a federal official.
In letters to the judge, DePape's mother, Shirley Jean Lawrence, asked him to have mercy on her son, stating that “he had made a big mistake.”
“How did it come to this? This is not the child I raised. This is not my David,” she wrote. “I love my son very much and in my heart I know who he really is… he is not a monster.”
Times staff writer Hannah Wiley contributed to this report.
