A man who earlier in January attacked a judge after jumping over her bench and desk in a Las Vegas courtroom has been sentenced to decades in prison.
Judge Johnson while announcing the sentence on Tuesday said Redden’s assault had been “an attack on the judiciary.”
“While there is no question you’ve got some mental illness issue, there was no doubt by doctors that you know the difference between right and wrong,” she told him.
31-year-old Deobra Redden attacked Clark County District Court Judge Mary Kay Holthus when she was announcing his sentence in an unrelated felony battery case. Redden received a sentence ranging from 26 to 65 years in a Nevada prison.
He has earlier pleaded guilty but mentally ill in September to attempted murder and other charges. The case concluded after Judge Holthus testified about fearing for her life when Redden jumped over her 4-foot-high (1.2-metre-high) bench and attacked her.
Defence attorney Carl Arnold indicated that his client had stopped taking prescribed schizophrenia medication before the incident.
Arnold said that the plea “reflects a delicate balance between accepting responsibility for a regrettable incident and recognising the impact of Mr. Redden’s untreated mental illness at the time.”
“He is deeply remorseful. The first time that he saw the entire video… his reaction was very visceral. It was almost like he wanted to throw up,”
“He called himself a monster. ‘That’s me? I did that? I did not mean to hurt that woman like that’.”
Courtroom footage recorded the 62-year-old judge being forced backwards as Redden leapt over the bench, grabbed her hair, and knocked down an American flag. However, while Holthus sustained injuries, she did not require hospitalisation, according to courthouse officials.
“I’m not making excuses for my actions, but I’m saying I’m not a bad person and I know that I did not intend to kill Mary Kay Holthus,” Redden said during Tuesday’s proceedings, AP reported citing KLAS-TV.
Redden will become eligible for parole after 2050.