Nancy Pelosi's husband's attacker David DePape found guilty of kidnapping by California jury, faces life in prison
WASHINGTON, DC: A man sentenced to 30 years in federal prison in connection to the attack against former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband was convicted of aggravated kidnapping on Friday, June 21, as per HuffPost.
A San Francisco jury also found David DePape guilty of first-degree burglary, elder abuse by false confinement, threatening a public official's family, and intimidating a witness. DePape now faces life without the possibility of parole as a result of his kidnapping conviction.
David DePape was previously convicted by a federal judge in the 2022 attack
The state trial's verdicts on the extra crimes follow weeks after DePape, 44, was sentenced by a federal judge for his 2022 attack on Paul Pelosi.
In an email statement issued on Friday, Pelosi’s office wrote, "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."
It added, "For nearly 20 grueling months, Mr Pelosi has demonstrated extraordinary courage and fortitude every day of his recovery."
Adam Lipson, DePape's public defender, expressed his disappointment with the decision, noting that he plans to challenge it. He referred to the prosecution's choice to press charges of kidnapping for ransom as "vindictive."
Lipson remarked, "It’s really unfortunate that it was charged this way. It was sort of a textbook vindictive prosecution. As soon as they found that the attempted murder charge was going to be dismissed, they added this charge."
At a press conference on Friday, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins stated that all of the allegations her office brought against DePape were supported by the same evidence.
She said that the jury was "able to find that he was guilty and so there’s no need for any accusations of vindictive prosecution," adding, "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."
David DePape's public defender argued that a state trial represents double jeopardy after a federal conviction
Lipson had previously claimed that the state trial constituted double jeopardy following his federal conviction. He informed the judge that the two instances are related to the same act even if the criminal charges are different.
Judge Harry Dorfman of the San Francisco Superior Court concurred and dismissed the state charges of attempted murder, elder abuse, and assault with a deadly weapon. On appeal, a different judge upheld the ruling.
According to Lipson, the decision implies that DePape would be sent to California "to spend the rest of his life in a California prison" upon his completion of 30 years of federal prison sentence.
DePape was previously found guilty by a federal jury of attacking a government official's family member and making an attempt to abduct a federal official. Due to a judicial error, he was resentenced on May 28 to 30 years in federal prison in an unusual hearing.
During the closing arguments, Lipson stressed that the prosecution failed to convince the jury that DePape kidnapped Paul Pelosi, who was 82 at the time, with the intention of "extorting from another person money or something valuable."
