Canadian David DePape gets life sentence in 2nd trial related to attack on Paul Pelosi
The man who was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for attacking the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a hammer in their California home was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole following a separate state trial.
A San Francisco jury in June found David DePape guilty of charges including aggravated kidnapping, first-degree burglary and false imprisonment of an elder.
Before issuing the sentence, Judge Harry Dorfman dismissed arguments from DePape’s attorneys that he be granted a new trial for the 2022 attack against Paul Pelosi, who was 82 years old at the time.
“It’s my intention that Mr. DePape will never get out of prison, he can never be paroled,” Dorfman said.
DePape is a Canadian citizen who grew up in Powell River, B.C., but has been living in the U.S. for years.
Before the sentence was handed down, defence attorney Adam Lipson asked Dorfman to consider DePape’s mental health and isolation that made him susceptible to online propaganda.
“This is a man who has always been a peaceful, law-abiding person up until his activation,” Lipson said.
DePape told court he is ‘psychic’
When given the chance to address the court prior to his sentencing, DePape, dressed in prison orange and with his brown hair in a ponytail, spoke at length about Sept. 11 being an inside job, his ex-wife being replaced by a body double, and his government-provided attorneys conspiring against him.
“I’m a psychic,” DePape told the court, reading from sheets of paper. “The more I meditate, the more psychic I get.”
In a letter read in court by the victim’s daughter, Christine Pelosi, Paul Pelosi called for the maximum sentence, saying the “last peaceful sleep” he had ended abruptly “when the defendant violently broke into my home, burst into my bedroom and stood over my bed with a hammer and zip ties demanding to see my wife, yelling ‘Where’s Nancy?'”
He said the attack left him with bumps on his head, a metal plate in it, dizziness and nerve damage in his left hand. Sleeping alone at home evokes memories of the attack, he said.
Previously, a federal jury convicted DePape of assaulting a federal official’s family member and attempting to kidnap a federal official. In May, he was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison during an unusual resentencing hearing that resulted from judicial error.
The punishment in the state trial will run concurrently with the federal sentence.
DePape’s attorneys have said the state trial amounted to double jeopardy following his federal conviction. Even though the criminal counts were not exactly the same, the two cases stem from the same act, they argued.
The judge did dismiss some of the state charges but kept others that were not covered by the federal case.
The Oct. 28, 2022, attack on Paul Pelosi was captured on police body camera video just days before the midterm elections and shocked the political world. He suffered head wounds, including a skull fracture that was mended with plates and screws. His right arm and hand were also injured.
DePape admitted during his federal trial that he planned to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage, record his interrogation of her, and “break her kneecaps” if she did not admit to the lies he said she told about “Russiagate,” a reference to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.
Published at Tue, 29 Oct 2024 20:14:05 +0000
Member of Modi’s inner circle behind Canadian criminal plot, official says
A senior official in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is alleged to have authorized a campaign to intimidate or kill Canadians, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs David Morrison told MPs Tuesday.
Morrison joined other senior officials testifying before MPs on the public safety and national security committee. MPs on the committee are asking questions about the RCMP’s shocking claim two weeks ago that agents of the Indian government were complicit in widespread crimes in Canada, including murder, extortion and intimidation.
Conservative MP Raquel Dancho, the party’s public safety critic, led off the hearing with questions about information the Canadian government shared with the Washington Post.
The newspaper reported that Canadian officials identified Indian Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah as one of the senior officials who authorized intelligence-gathering missions and attacks on Sikh separatists in Canada.
“The journalists called me and asked me if it was that person. I confirmed it was that person,” Morrison said.
Shah has been described as India’s “second most powerful man” and is one of Modi’s closest confidants.
Before Tuesday, Canadian officials would only state on the record that the plot could be traced back to the “highest levels of the Indian government.”
RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme also testified Tuesday. He has said police evidence shows Indian diplomats and consular staff collected information for the Indian government, which was used to issue instructions to criminal organizations to carry out acts of violence in Canada.
He said the Mounties also have assembled evidence of credible and imminent threats to members of the South Asian community, specifically members of the pro-Khalistan movement seeking a separate homeland for Sikhs.
On Thanksgiving Monday, the federal government announced it had expelled six Indian diplomats — including the high commissioner, India’s chief envoy to Canada. India has denied the accusations and swiftly retaliated by kicking Canadian diplomats out of its territory.
Commissioner Mike Duheme tells Power & Politics that RCMP allegations about acts of violence and extortion in Canada link to the upper echelons of India’s government, and provides an update on police progress against threats to public safety.
Duheme said police have warned 13 Canadians since September 2023 that they could be targets of harassment or threats by Indian agents. Police say some of those individuals have received multiple threats.
Duheme told CBC he believes those people are safer since the Indian diplomats were expelled.
India has denied working with criminal organizations to target Sikh separatists in Canada and has accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of having a “political agenda” behind the allegations.
Published at Tue, 29 Oct 2024 08:00:00 +0000