The suspect arrested and charged for doing massive damage to Vice President JD Vance’s home in Cincinnati, Ohio has entered a guilty plea to two federal charges in connection with the incident. William DeFoor, 26, pleaded guilty to acts of physical violence against a person or property in a restricted building or grounds and willful injury or depredation of property of the United States.
If he is convicted, DeFoor faces a possible sentence of 10 years in prison for each count. Information gleaned from the statement of facts attached to DeFoor’s plea agreement, on January 5, Secret Service agents spotted the suspect running along the front fence of Vance’s home around midnight. DeFoor then breached the property line and used a hammer to try breaking the driver’s side window of an unmarked U.S. government police vehicle that was blocking the entrance to the driveway.
Secret Service agents then issued commands for DeFoor to stop and drop the hammer, but he refused to comply. He then used the hammer to break 14 glass panels in three large historic windows spread out across the front of the home. While the incident was unfolding, DeFoor damaged security assets owned by the U.S. government that were attached to each window.
According to a report from WCPO, as part of DeFoor’s plea agreement, he is required to pay a total of $28,000 in restitution for the damages the property sustained. He is also banned from going within 350 yards of Vance, his family, or their homes. He is barred from contacting or attempting to contact the vice president or his family members.
Federal prosecutors also agreed to drop a third charge against DeFoor — assaulting, resisting or impeding federal officers — as part of the deal, following sentencing. “The third count was more serious arguably in that it asserted a physical resistance, but I don’t think the facts ever bore that out,” DeFoor’s attorney, Paul Laufman went on to say.
Laufman insisted throughout the case that DeFoor’s actions were not motivated by politics, but were due to his struggles with mental health issues. “I don’t know that it was or wasn’t politically motivated. Mr. DeFoor suffers from mental health issues. I don’t know that he clearly 100% knew where he was or what he was doing that night,” the attorney said.
However, federal prosecutors working the case previously asserted that DeFoor specifically targeted Vance’s home, but could not say for sure that his vandalism was related to politics. At the time of his arrest, DeFoor was undergoing court-ordered mental health treatment in connection with a different set of vandalism charges unrelated to the incident at the vice president’s home.
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In 2023, he was charged with criminal trespass, but he was deemed incompetent to stand trial. The following year, DeFoor was charged with two counts of vandalism for smashing windows in the front of a business. He was then ruled incompetent to stand trial in that case as well. The court then ordered he undergo treatment at Summit Behavioral Healthcare. DeFoor is to be sentenced after a pre-sentence investigation report is completed. Laufman expects the process to take several months.
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video