Updated 11/16/23 at 9:03 p.m.
The jury will only have deliberated for half a day. The conspiratorial assailant who attacked former Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi’s husband with a hammer in October 2022, days before the US midterm elections, was found guilty by a San Francisco court on Thursday.
Jurors convicted David DePape of the violent attack in which he fractured Paul Pelosi’s skull and also found him guilty of attempting to kidnap Nancy Pelosi.
DePape will be sentenced later. He faces 30 years in prison for assault and 20 years for attempted kidnapping, maximum sentences that take into account that his crime was committed against an elected official of the United States.
“Where is Nancy?” »
This Canadian citizen, former nudist activist, entered the Pelosi House in San Francisco in October 2022, while the woman, who was then the third person in the American state to preside over the House of Representatives, was in Washington.
Equipped in particular with rope, a pair of gloves and duct tape, he encountered her husband Paul Pelosi and asked: “Where is Nancy?” »
Before he was attacked, the octogenarian managed to call the police emergency number. After his arrest, DePape told police that he planned to “break the kneecaps” of the parliamentarian if she did not admit to the “lies” of the Democratic camp.
Among the conspiracy theories he shared on social networks, he notably claimed, contrary to all evidence, that the American election was stolen. The suspect also told investigators that he was on a “suicide mission” and planned to attack “several prominent political figures” as well as their family members and a professor in the area, according to a document from the San Francisco district attorney’s office.