A 26-year-old Cincinnati man with a documented history of mental illness pleaded guilty to two federal charges after smashing windows at Vice President JD Vance's home with a hammer, an incident that caused roughly $28,000 in damage and could send him to prison for up to 20 years.
William DeFoor entered his plea on Tuesday in connection with the midnight rampage at Vance's Cincinnati residence on January 5, when Secret Service agents spotted him running along the fence of the protected property armed with a hammer. DeFoor first tried to break the window of an unmarked federal law enforcement vehicle, then turned the hammer on large historic windows at the home itself, WLWT reported.
The two charges, engaging in acts of physical violence against government officials or property, and causing willful injury or depredation to property of the United States, each carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison. A federal grand jury indicted DeFoor in January. He has remained in custody since his arrest.
Vance and his family were not home at the time of the attack, AP News reported. DeFoor broke 14 historic window panes and damaged security enhancements at the residence, bringing total damage to approximately $28,000.
U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II framed the case as a matter of protecting the democratic process, not just property.
"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 added that individuals who put that freedom at risk through destructive actions "will, like here, be vigorously prosecuted." The court ordered DeFoor to pay approximately $28,000 in restitution and barred him from coming within 350 yards of any Vance residence, occupied or not, or of the vice president and his family members personally.
Sentencing has not yet been scheduled. A pre-sentence investigation must be completed first. The vice president, who is widely considered a leading figure in the Republican Party's future, responded to the original incident on social media.
Vance posted on X after the January 5 attack, as the New York Post reported:
"I appreciate everyone's well wishes about the attack at our home. As far as I can tell, a crazy person tried to break in by hammering the windows. I'm grateful to the secret service and the Cincinnati police for responding quickly."
Defense attorney Paul Laufman did not contest the facts of the case. He told reporters after the hearing that his client had never denied what he did.
"My client has never denied what he did. Accepting responsibility is the first step in making it right."
Laufman steered the conversation toward DeFoor's mental health, arguing the case drew attention for the wrong reasons. The security challenges facing the vice president have drawn scrutiny on multiple fronts, including a recent criminal inquiry into a Secret Service agent on Vance's protective detail.
"This case got attention because of whose house it was when it should have gotten attention for the mental health that's driving all of this... Mr. DeFoor suffers from mental health issues. I don't know if he clearly, 100 percent understood where he was or what he was doing that night."
DeFoor told the court he was being treated for schizophrenia and depression. Those claims are consistent with his documented legal history. In 2023, Hamilton County Judge Heather Russell found DeFoor mentally unfit to stand trial on a criminal trespassing charge, ruling that he was "not capable of understanding the nature and objective of the proceedings" and "not capable of presently assisting in the defense." That charge was subsequently dismissed, National Review reported.
The January 5 attack was not DeFoor's first brush with the law. In April 2025, he pleaded guilty to two counts of vandalism causing more than $2,000 in damage and was sentenced to restitution and two years of mental health treatment. That sentence was still in effect when he showed up at the vice president's home with a hammer months later.
DeFoor's mother, Catherine DeFoor, was granted legal guardianship over her son in October 2024 after a Hamilton County court found him incompetent because of mental illness. She addressed the incident publicly, telling reporters that "mental illness is a terrible thing" and offering prayers for the Vances, as Breitbart reported.
The timeline raises a pointed question: a man with multiple prior offenses, a court-documented history of mental incompetence, a legal guardian, and an active sentence requiring mental health treatment still managed to reach the fence line of the vice president's home carrying a weapon. President Trump has publicly praised Vance's performance as vice president, and the security of the nation's second-highest officeholder is not a small matter.
Vance himself framed the broader risk plainly after the attack, saying: "There are crazy people out there and we're thankful for the Secret Service and the grace of God that we're still here to do the job that we can."
DeFoor also faces state charges from the incident, including obstructing official business, criminal damaging or endangering, criminal trespass, and vandalism. The federal charges, which carry the heaviest potential penalties, now stand resolved by his guilty plea. The question of how much prison time he will serve rests with the sentencing judge, who will weigh the pre-sentence investigation, the $28,000 restitution order, and the 350-yard protective order already in place.
The broader question, how a man under court-ordered mental health supervision ended up at the vice president's front door, is one no plea deal can answer. The system that was supposed to be treating DeFoor failed to contain him. Vance's family paid the price. The investigation into potential security lapses surrounding the vice president only adds urgency to the question of whether the people tasked with protecting him are up to the job.
Mental illness is real. So is a hammer through a window. A justice system that treats the first as an excuse for the second is a system that has stopped protecting the people it exists to serve.