San Francisco, CA – San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced today that David DePape (44), of Berkeley, California, was sentenced in San Francisco Superior Court by the Honorable Judge Harry Dorfman to a term of life in prison without the possibility of parole following his conviction on aggravated kidnapping and other charges in connection to brutally attacking Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi’s, Paul Pelosi, husband in their home on October 28, 2022.

Mr. DePape was convicted by a jury of aggravated kidnapping (Pen. Code 209, subd. (a)), first degree residential burglary (Pen. Code section 459), false imprisonment of an elder by violence or menace (Pen. Code section 368, subd. (f)), threatening the life of a family member of a public official (Pen. Code section 76, subd. (a)) and dissuading a witness by force or threat (Pen. Code section 136.1, subd. (c)(1)). The jury also found true allegations that Mr. DePape inflicted great bodily injury (Pen. Code section 12022.7, subd. (c)) and personally used a deadly or dangerous weapon (Pen. Code section 12022, subd. (b)(1)) during the commission of his crimes.

“Mr. DePape has been convicted of crimes both federally and locally reflecting the public’s unanimous condemnation,” said District Attorney Brooke Jenkins. Recognizing the seriousness of his crimes and the danger to democracy that Mr. DePape posed he is now being held accountable and will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. We can not allow political violence to become normalized and must take swift action to ensure there are serious consequences for those who will utilize violence to intimidate or stifle our elected leaders for doing what they have been elected to do. I hope that today’s sentencing, which comes almost two years to the day of the incident, provides some closure to Mr. Pelosi and his family and the American people who were horrified by Mr. DePape’s grotesque violence. Mr. DePape will now face justice for the violence that he wrought as a result of overheated dangerous and divisive partisan rhetoric spewed online and in person. While some politicians made light of this incident and joked about it to score political points this was a horrific attack on one of our leaders, a family and our democracy. We must all do our part to stand for justice and the rule of law.”

According to the evidence and testimony presented at trial, on October 28, 2022, Mr. DePape was arrested by San Francisco Police after breaking into the home of then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi and brutally attacking her husband. Mr. DePape attacked Mr. Pelosi with a hammer, fracturing his skull and causing serious injuries to his right arm and hands. Mr. Pelosi did not know the attacker nor had ever seen him before. Then Speaker Pelosi, DePape’s intended target, was not in the home at the time of the incident.

The case was successfully prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Phoebe Maffei and Sean Connolly, with assistance from the Writs and Appeals unit, the District Attorney Investigators team as well as paralegals Yessenia Oropeza, Tony Yu, Jessica Diamond, and Julio Flores Guzman. Deputy Chief of Victim Services Prisicilla Portillo worked closely with the victim and his family throughout the pendency of this case. The case was successfully prosecuted based on a thorough investigation by the San Francisco Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Assistant District Attorneys Sean Connolly and Phoebe Maffei stated, “There is no rejoicing in such cases. There are no winners. The sentence reflects the seriousness of the defendant’s conduct and the great harm he inflicted upon an innocent man.”

Court Number: 22012966