Paul Pelosi recalls brutal attack in California trial of David DePape: Trying to 'put it out of my mind'

Paul Pelosi, the husband of U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Friday recalled the brutal attack he endured at the hands of an intruder in his San Francisco home while testifying in a California courtroom where his assailant is on trial.  

David DePape, 44, who has already been sentenced to 30 years by a federal court for viciously attacking Paul Pelosi with a hammer, was in court Friday to face state charges. He was found guilty of attempting to hold Pelosi hostage and assaulting her husband, Paul Pelosi, after he broke into their home on Oct. 28, 2022, looking for Nancy Pelosi, who was then the House Speaker. 

On Friday, Pelosi, 84, took the stand as DePape faces state charges for the attack. 

"I'm groggy and this large man with a hammer in his hand comes into my room, which is this amazing thing to realize, and said, ‘Are you Paul Pelosi?'" Pelosi recalled, FOX San Francisco reported. "I think I remember being struck. The police were saying ‘Drop the hammer,’ I remember the police saying ‘Drop the hammer.’ But whatever that sequence was, since he wasn't dropping it. And basically, that's the last thing I remember."

DEPAPE CONSIDERED NANCY PELOSI ‘EVIL,’ SAVED HER PERSONAL INFORMATION ON LAPTOP, PROSECUTION SAYS 

David DePape is shown in Berkeley, Calif., on Dec. 13, 2013. DePape appeared in a California court Friday for his state trial for the attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, began.  (Michael Short/San Francisco Chronicle via AP/File)

On Friday, Assistant San Francisco District Attorney Sean Connolly began his opening remarks by discussing the sanctity of one's home. 

"When we are asleep, we are most vulnerable, and our elderly are our most vulnerable citizens," he said. "Think about that: a home, in the middle of the night, a man alone, sleeping in his bed."

DePape's defense attorney, San Francisco Deputy Public Defender Adam Lipson, told jurors that his client had isolated himself and fell deeper into conspiracy theories in the months leading up to the attack. He said DePape never intended to kill Paul Pelosi but that he "lashed out irrationally" as part of a misguided plan. 

He also said DePape had been diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder, a mental health condition characterized by a lack of interest in social relationships,

DePape lived in a garage without access to a bathroom in Richmond, a San Francisco suburb, and spent almost every waking hour playing video games and surfing the internet," said Lipson. 

In the state case against him, DePape is charged with attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, residential burglary, false imprisonment, threatening the life or serious bodily harm to a public official, and threatening the staff or family of a public official. He has pleaded not guilty. 

PAUL PELOSI HAMMER ATTACKER DAVID DEPAPE RECEIVES MAXIMUM SENTENCE 

Paul Pelosi attends a portrait unveiling ceremony for his wife, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in Statuary Hall at the Capitol in Washington, Dec. 14, 2022.  (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite/File)

DePape admitted during his federal trial that he planned to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage, interrogate her and "break her kneecaps" if she did not admit to the lies he said she told about "Russiagate," referencing the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. She wasn't inside the home at the time. 

Angela Chuang, one of his attorneys, said during closing arguments that DePape was estranged from his family and was caught up in conspiracy theories.

The attack occurred days before the 2022 midterm elections and was captured on police body cameras. Paul Pelosi sustained two head wounds, including a skull fracture that was mended with plates and screws that he will have for the rest of his life. His right arm and hand were also injured.

DePape was re-sentenced to 30 years in federal prison this month after Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley wrote in a filing that it was a "clear error" on her part not to allow him to make a statement on May 17 before being sentenced as required by law. 

"I’m truly sorry for my mistake," she told DePape and his attorneys before he broke down while reading a prepared statement from a sheet of paper. 

A screenshot from a police body camera video shows David DePape, left, holding onto Paul Pelosi, the husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in the couple’s house on Oct. 28, 2022.  (San Francisco District Attorney/Handout via Reuters)

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DePape told the court that "I feel horribly for hurting Mr. Pelosi" and "I should have gone home when I found out Nancy Pelosi wasn’t there" on the night of the hammer attack at the couple’s home. 

In a previously written statement, Pelosi said his life had been "irrevocably changed" by the attack. 

"Frankly, I've tried to put it out of my mind for two years now," he said Friday.

Fox News Digital's Greg Norman and Michael Lundin as well as The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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