After Mistake, Judge to Reopen Sentencing for Pelosi's Attacker

UPDATE May 20, 2024 7:05 PM CDT

Conceding that she made a "clear error," a federal judge said she will reopen the sentencing hearing for the man who beat Paul Pelosi with a hammer. The mistake: David DePape wasn't allowed to address the court on Friday as required by law. US District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley said in a court filing over the weekend that a new hearing in San Francisco will be held May 28, the AP reports. Neither the prosecution nor the defense pointed out the error, the judge noted. "Nonetheless, it was the Court's responsibility to personally ask Mr. DePape if he wanted to speak," Corley wrote.

May 17, 2024 2:03 PM CDT

The man who attacked Paul Pelosi with a hammer received a 30-year prison sentence on Friday. US District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley imposed the sentence on David DePape, 44, reports NBC News. DePape broke into the Pelosi residence in California on Oct. 28, 2022, demanding to see Nancy Pelosi, who was then House speaker but was not home at the time of the attack. "He actually went to the home—that is completely, completely unprecedented," said Corley. Prosecutors, who say he intended to kidnap and interrogate Nancy Pelosi, had requested a 40-year sentence.

Paul Pelosi, who was 82 at the time of the attack, suffered a skull fracture as well as injuries to his right arm and hand, per the AP. DePape had told investigators he believed QAnon conspiracy theories about Pelosi and other top government leaders being devil-worshiping pedophiles. The judge said she took into account DePape's vulnerability to such conspiracy theories as well as his lack of a prior criminal record, notes the New York Times. He was convicted of two charges: attempted kidnapping of a federal officer and assault on an immediate family member of a federal official. (More Paul Pelosi stories.)