SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley, who erred last week when she didn’t allow David DePape to speak before sentencing him to 30 years in prison for breaking into former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home and fracturing her husband Paul’s skull with a hammer, resentenced DePape to the same prison term on Tuesday morning.
Corley, a Joe Biden appointee, admitted that she failed to allow DePape to speak at the original sentencing two weeks ago, necessitating the hearing redo.
The judge apologized to DePape before handing down the sentence.
“It’s completely on me," Corley said. "We all agreed it was a clear error.”
DePape did take his chance to speak this time, reading a very brief statement of apology.
“I’m sorry for what I did, especially what I did to Paul Pelosi,” he said. DePape said he should have left the Pelosi residence when he broke in and found out that Nancy Pelosi, his target, was not home.
He said he was doing poorly mentally during the time period before the attack, and that his phone call to KTVU-TV, where he told a reporter that he was “so sorry I didn't get more of them,” was “stupid,” and was not meant to taunt America, as Corley said during the initial sentencing two weeks ago.
During the original sentencing hearing two weeks ago, the Pelosis’ daughter, Christine, read victim impact statements from Paul and Nancy Pelosi.
“Ever since the defendant violently broke into my home and woke me up yelling ‘where’s Nancy?' on Oct. 22, 2022, my life has irrevocably changed,” Paul Pelosi wrote in his statement.
He said his head and hand injuries continue to affect his life; he suffers from headaches and cannot use his left hand for simple actions.
When he learned Nancy wasn’t home, Paul wrote, DePape “made me take the punishment with a vicious assault.”
Nancy Pelosi’s statement asked the judge to impose a “very long sentence."
“Even now, 18 months after the home invasion and assault, the signs of blood and break-in are impossible to avoid. Our home remains a heartbreaking crime scene,” Nancy Pelosi wrote.
She added that Paul Pelosi continues to suffer symptoms like fainting spells that have caused him to fall on numerous occasions, requiring further medical treatment.
In court filings last week, DePape contested the new sentencing date, writing that it conflicted with his state trial, which began with jury selection last week. Opening arguments are due in the state case Wednesday morning, where DePape is facing charges of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and elder abuse, among others charges. He has pleaded not guilty.
DePape has also appealed his federal conviction and sentence to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that Corley must suspend any further actions until the appeal is resolved.
At the trial in November, the prosecution showed the jury police body camera footage of the attack, as well as the aftermath, where DePape admitted to the attack.
DePape pleaded not guilty and testified in his own defense during the trial. He said he'd spent most of his days in a Richmond garage playing video games and listening to right-wing podcasts from Tim Pool and James Lindsay that espoused right-wing conspiracies about schools being “molestation factories.”
DePape said he believed Pelosi was a part of a cabal of elites controlling the country, indoctrinating children and trampling on the rights of Americans. He said Pelosi and other progressive politicians smeared former President Donald Trump during the 2016 election.
He said he intended to kidnap Nancy Pelosi and “break her kneecaps," and when he found out she wasn’t home, he took Paul Pelosi hostage. He said when his plan was foiled, he decided to attack Paul, whom he struck three times with a hammer.
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