Cincinnati man pleads guilty to vandalizing Vice President JD Vance’s home
A Cincinnati man pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to vandalizing Vice President JD Vance’s home earlier this year, including damaging federal property with a hammer.
William D. DeFoor, 26, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Douglas R. Cole to engaging in acts of physical violence against government officials or property and causing willful injury or depredation to property of the United States, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio.
Each offense is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. DeFoor will be sentenced at a later date, and his sentence will be determined under federal sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.
The charges stem from the Jan. 5 vandalism of Vance’s Cincinnati residence. According to court documents, Secret Service agents saw DeFoor running along the front fence of the protected property around midnight before he breached the property line at the driveway.
Federal prosecutors said DeFoor approached an unmarked federal law enforcement vehicle blocking the driveway and struck its driver’s side window three times with a hammer.
Agents ordered DeFoor to stop and drop the weapon, but prosecutors said he ignored their commands and began using the hammer to break large historic glass windows across the front of Vance’s home.
The hammer strikes also damaged enhanced security equipment installed on the windows and owned by the federal government. Prosecutors valued the damaged security equipment at approximately $28,000.
DeFoor then attempted to flee on foot before Secret Service agents and Cincinnati police officers detained him, according to prosecutors.
Vance and his family were not at the residence during the incident, according to the Secret Service.
“Acts of violence directed against our political leaders, their families, or property, have no place in our society and will not be tolerated,” U.S. Attorney Dominick Gerace II said in a statement. “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.”
DeFoor was charged by criminal complaint and later indicted by a federal grand jury in January. He has remained in federal custody since his arrest.
As Ohio.News previously reported, DeFoor is the son of a Cincinnati doctor who donated to former President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign and former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign. There is no indication in the federal case that the vandalism was connected to those contributions.
Vance addressed the vandalism shortly after DeFoor’s arrest, thanking law enforcement while asking news organizations to consider the privacy of his children when publishing images of the damaged residence.
