Prosecutors showed jurors security camera footage from the Pelosis’ home, which showed DePape smash out a glass patio door before forcing his way through a wooden one. They heard the 911 call Paul Pelosi made from his bedroom bathroom, where he calmly said there was someone in his home with him and that person wanted him to get off the phone.
Jurors also saw body camera footage of two Capitol Police officers approaching the Pelosis’ front door in response to that 911 call, finding Paul Pelosi standing next to DePape, both gripping a handle. When commanded to put the hammer down, DePape replied, “Nope,” before swinging the hammer multiple times at Pelosi, fracturing his skull.
DePape’s public defenders admitted he was guilty of several of the charged felonies, including first-degree residential burglary and dissuading a witness.
But San Francisco Public Defender Adam Lipson argued the state failed to prove DePape guilty of kidnapping because there was nothing of value to be gained from Paul Pelosi, 82.
“It’s really unfortunate it was charged this way,” Lipson said. “It was sort of a textbook vindictive prosecution. As soon as they found out that the attempted murder charge was going to be dismissed, they added this [kidnapping] charge.”
Maffei countered that a video of the House speaker confessing in her own home to alleged crimes against the American people would have great value.
DePape told investigators his other targets included actor Tom Hanks, former Vice President Mike Pence, a professor in San Francisco and his ex-wife, Gypsy Taub, whom the judge barred from the proceedings for allegedly attempting to intimidate the jury.
Dorfman ordered Taub to stay away from the second floor of the Hall of Justice, where the trial was held after graffiti was discovered in a women’s restroom. That graffiti was the address to a website Taub said she established to cast doubt on the state’s case against DePape.
