A man sentenced to 30 years in federal prison in the attack against former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband was convicted Friday of aggravated kidnapping, a conviction that mandates life behind bars without the possibility of parole. A San Francisco jury found David DePape also guilty of first-degree burglary, false imprisonment of an elder, threatening a family member of a public official, and dissuading a witness. The convictions on the additional charges in the state trial come weeks after a federal judge sentenced DePape, 44, for the 2022 attack against Paul Pelosi, per the AP.
"Speaker Pelosi and her family remain in awe of their Pop's bravery, which shone through again on the witness stand in this trial just as it did when he saved his own life on the night of the attack," Pelosi's office wrote in an emailed statement on Friday. "For nearly 20 grueling months, Mr. Pelosi has demonstrated extraordinary courage and fortitude every day of his recovery."
DePape's public defender, Adam Lipson, said he was disappointed with the verdict and plans to appeal it. He called the prosecutors' decision to file a kidnapping for ransom charge "vindictive." "It's really unfortunate that it was charged this way. It was sort of a textbook vindictive prosecution," Lipson said. "As soon as they found that the attempted murder charge was going to be dismissed, they added this charge." San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said at a news conference on Friday that all charges her office filed against DePape were based on the same evidence.
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The jury was "able to find that he was guilty, and so there's no need for any accusations of vindictive prosecution," she said. "We're simply trying to do our jobs to make sure that he was held accountable for every act that occurred that night that was criminal." Lipson said the verdict means that after DePape serves 30 years in federal prison, he'll be transferred to California "to spend the rest of his life in a California prison." Previously, a federal jury convicted DePape of assaulting a federal official's family member and attempting to kidnap a federal official. On May 28, he was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison during an unusual resentencing hearing that resulted from judicial error. More here. (More David DePape stories.)
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