[ad_1]
The man who beat Nancy Pelosi’s husband to death with a hammer in their San Francisco home was convicted Friday of aggravated kidnapping as part of a state trial that could put him behind bars for life.
The verdict marks the end of a second trial against David Depapp, who was previously pleaded guilty in a federal trial for the 2022 attack. Last month, a judge sentenced DePape to 30 years in federal prison.
On Friday, a San Francisco jury also found DePape guilty of first-degree burglary, false imprisonment of an adult, threatening a family member of a public official, perjuring a witness and aggravated kidnapping.
DePape’s public defender, Adam Lipson, told the jury during closing arguments that DePape was guilty of three of the charges, but that prosecutors did not present evidence to convict him of threatening a family member of a public official and aggravated kidnapping .
Prosecutors added those two charges in late May as DePape’s federal trial was wrapping up.
A federal jury convicted DePape of assaulting a family member of a federal employee and attempting to kidnap a federal employee. On May 28 he was sentenced to 30 years in a federal prison during an unusual appeals hearing that resulted from a miscarriage of justice. Depapp will likely be deported to Canada after serving his sentence.
Lipson previously argued that the state trial posed double jeopardy after the federal conviction. Although the criminal charges are not the same, the two cases stem from the same act, he told the judge.
San Francisco Superior Court Judge Harry Dorfman agreed and dismissed the state’s charges of attempted murder, elder abuse and assault with a deadly weapon.
Lipson focused his closing arguments on explaining to jurors that prosecutors failed to prove Depapp kidnapped Paul Pelosi, who was 82 at the time, with the intent “to demand money or something of value from another person,” which was an integral part of the charge.
Prosecutors said the valuable thing DePape wanted from the kidnapping was to create a video of Nancy Pelosi confessing to the crimes she believed she committed, prosecutors said.
Lipson claims that the video does not exist and that if it did, it would have no value.
“When he broke into Pelosi’s home, his intent was to stand up and potentially injure and assault Nancy Pelosi. This was his intention at the time; it has nothing to do with Mr. Pelosi,” he said.
In his rebuttal, the assistant district attorney, Phoebe Maffei, said DePapp told a detective and testified in federal court that he planned to obtain a videotape of Nancy Pelosi confessing to what he believed to be felonies and release it in Internet.
“There is inherent value in the video of the Speaker of the House confessing to crimes in her own home,” Maffei said.
The assault on Paul Pelosi was captured on police body camera video just days before the 2022 midterm elections and shocked the political world. Pelosi suffered two head wounds, including a skull fracture that was fixed with plates and screws, which she will wear for the rest of her life. His right arm and hand were also injured.
On Monday, Maffei told the jury that DePape unleashed a “reign of terror” on Paul Pelosi before beating him with a hammer as part of a plan he hatched for months.
“The simple facts of this case are horrific on their own without embellishment,” Maffei said. “David Depapp broke into the home of an 82-year-old man while he was sleeping, entered his bedroom, held him hostage with a hammer, threatened him, threatened his wife and tried to kill him.”
DePape, a right-wing conspiracy theorist, admitted during his testimony at the federal trial that he planned to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage, record his interrogation of her and “break her kneecaps” if she did not confess to the lies. which he said she said about “Russiagate,” a reference to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.
Lipson told the jury during closing arguments that before the attack, Depapp had lived an isolated, lonely life and “went down the rabbit hole of propaganda and conspiracy theories.”
This week, the judge kicked DePape’s former partner, Gypsy Taub, out of the courthouse because the judge said she was trying to interfere with the jury.
Taub, a well-known Bay Area activist, passed out slips of paper outside the courtroom with the address of a website she runs that promotes conspiracy theories. The cards were also found in a women’s bathroom near the courtroom, where the website address was scrawled in marker on the wall.
DePape’s federal public defender said during his federal sentencing that DePape was first exposed to extreme beliefs by Taub, who has two children with DePape.
[ad_2]
