The suspect who stormed Vice President JD Vance’s property in Cincinnati, Ohio with a hammer has entered a guilty plea to federal charges after a wild and strange attack the caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage. William D. DeFoor, 26, pleaded guilty to charges of engaging in acts of physical violence against government officials and willfully causing injury to property of the United States.
An announcement concerning the charges against DeFoor was released by the Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio. DeFoor gained national infamy in January 2026 after he managed to breach the area surrounding Vance’s $1.4 million Ohio home, armed with a hammer. Thankfully, the vice president and his family were in Washington, D.C. at the time of the incident.
Secret Service agents caught DeFoor in the very early morning hours of January 5 after he took a jog along the front fence of the property. Charging documents say that DeFoor used the hammer to strike the driver’s side window of an unmarked federal law enforcement vehicle numerous times before he started going to work on the windows of Vance’s home.
According to a report from Trending Politics News, DeFoor also refused commands given by law enforcement to drop his weapon, which could have led to the situation taking a much more deadly turn, but thankfully, that was avoided. Federal prosecutors working on the case estimated the damage to the government-owned property at $28,000.
U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II slammed the attack when announcing the suspect’s guilty plea. “Acts of violence directed against our political leaders, their families, or property, have no place in our society and will not be tolerated. Our elected leaders, at all levels of government, must be permitted to carry out their duties free from threats, vandalism, and other forms of violence,” Gerace went on to say.
“Perpetrators like DeFoor, who put that freedom at risk, particularly through violent, destructive actions, will, like here, be vigorously prosecuted,” he added. The legal team representing DeFoor argue that the attack wasn’t motivated by politics and had “nothing to do with the specifics of the vice president.” The attorneys said that DeFoor has a lengthy history of mental illness, including schizophrenia.
He has also spent time being treated for mental health issues in psychiatric facilities. DeFoor’s mother, Catherine, also discussed her son’s struggles in a statement that was released earlier this year. “It is a struggle which can take over the life of a beautiful person and the people who love and support them,” Catherine said.
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“Unfortunately for our child, it has taken over his life in a way that we can never have imagined,” she added. DeFoor was busted in 2023 and charged with trespassing at the University of Cincinnati Health Psychiatric Emergency Services. The court later found him to be incompetent to stand trial and the casse was tossed out.
A year later, he was charged with two counts of vandalism after breaking windows at a local business and was then ordered to receive treatment. Following that incident, his mother was granted legal guardianship of him due to being found incompetent because of mental illness. Judge Douglas R. Cole denied a request that DeFoor be allowed to await trial at his parents’ home. He faces up to a decade in prison for the charges.
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