The man who was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for attacking former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband with a hammer in their California home was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Tuesday after a separate state trial.
A San Francisco jury in June found David DePape guilty of charges including aggravated kidnapping, first-degree burglary and false imprisonment of an elder.
Before sentencing Dibab to life in prison on his kidnapping conviction, Judge Harry Dorfman rejected defense attorneys’ arguments by granting a new formal trial for the 2022 attack against Paul Pelosi, who was 82 years old at the time.
“It is my intention that Mr. DePape will never get out of prison, nor can he be released on parole,” Dorfman said while handing out the sentence. He later said: “I don’t feel for you. I feel for the victim in this case. He’s lucky to be alive.”
Adam Lipson, a deputy public defender in San Francisco, asked Dorfman to take into account Debab’s mental health and isolation that made him vulnerable to online propaganda.
“This is a man who has always been a peaceful, law-abiding person until it was enacted,” Lipson said before the sentence was handed down.
When given the opportunity to address the court before his sentencing, Debab, dressed in orange prison clothing and with his brown hair in a ponytail, spoke at length about 9/11 being an inside job, with his ex-wife replaced by a body double. His lawyers, provided by the government, are conspiring against him.
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“I am a psychic,” Dibab told the court as he read from papers. “The more you meditate, the more psychic you become.”
The judge interrupted DePape several times to ask if he wanted to address the jury’s verdict or his conduct on the night of the attack, but DePape ignored the offers.
In a letter read in court by Christine Pelosi, the victim’s daughter, Paul Pelosi called for the maximum sentence, saying her “last peaceful sleep” was abruptly ended “when the defendant violently entered my home, broke into my bedroom and stood over me.” My bed with a hammer and zip ties demanding to see my wife and screaming “Where’s Nancy?”
He said the attack left him with bumps on his head, a metal plate in it, dizziness and nerve damage in his left hand. He added that sleeping alone at home brings back memories of the attack.
In a statement after Tuesday’s ruling, Pelosi’s family said that after two grueling years, “legal justice has been served.”
“A life sentence without parole gives our people a measure of legal justice, and we hope it sends a message to others that political violence against elected officials or their family members will not be tolerated, minimized, or condoned,” the statement read. “Each of us must do our part to build a peaceful democracy.”
Previously, a federal jury convicted Dibab of assaulting a family member of a federal official and attempting to kidnap a federal official. In May, he was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison.
Although Dibab expressed remorse for his actions in federal governance, he did not do so on Tuesday. The judges in both cases said they could not ignore the seriousness of targeting elected officials.
Judge Dorfman on Tuesday also sentenced Dibab to additional years in prison on the other charges, but all sentences, including the federal sentence, will run concurrently. He said that if the appeals court overturns his sentence of life without parole, he will request that the case be returned to his court for a retrial.
Lipson told reporters after the hearing that he would appeal the ruling. “This was a truly tragic end to a tragic story,” he said.
San Francisco Assistant District Attorneys Sean Connolly and Phoebe Maffei said in a statement that the sentence reflects the seriousness of Debab’s conduct and the harm he inflicted on an innocent man.
“There is no joy in such cases. There are no winners.”
The defense argued that the state prosecution was double jeopardy, saying that although the state and federal charges were not exactly identical, the two cases stemmed from the same act. The judge dismissed some of the state charges, but kept others not included in the federal case.
The October 28, 2022, attack on Paul Pelosi was captured on police video just days before the midterm elections and shocked the political world. He suffered head injuries, including a fractured skull that was repaired with plates and screws.
Debabe, a Canadian citizen who has lived in the United States for years, admitted during his federal trial that he planned to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage, record his interrogation of her, and “break her knees” if she did not confess to the lies he told. She said she talked about “Russiagate,” referring to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.
& Edition 2024 The Canadian Press
