LAS VEGAS (AP) — The same judge accosted by a defendant in a Las Vegas courtroom last week sentenced her attacker Monday to up to four years in prison in an unrelated case.
Deobra Delone Redden leapt over the bench and attacked Clark County District Court Judge Mary Kay Holthus in her courtroom last week after trying to convince the judge he was turning around his violent past.
The sentence handed down Monday was in connection with a baseball bat attack on a person last year. Redden stood in court in shackles with a mask on his face and orange mitts on his hands, flanked by a group of jail officers. His lawyer, Caesar Almase, declined to comment outside the courtroom.
In the attack last week, Redden had to be wrestled off the judge by several court and jail officers and courtroom staff members — including some who were seen throwing punches. One courtroom marshal was hospitalized for treatment of a bleeding gash on his forehead and a dislocated shoulder. Redden launched himself at the judge just after asking for leniency and describing himself as “a person who never stops trying to do the right thing no matter how hard it is.”
When it became clear Holthus was going to sentence him to prison time, the court marshal moved to handcuff Redden and take him into custody. That’s when the defendant started yelling expletives and charged forward as people in the courtroom audience began to scream.
Redden vaulted a defense table, dove over the judge’s bench and landed atop Holthus. The video showed the judge falling back against a wall and an American flag toppling on them.
Redden “supermanned over the judicial bench,” Jerry Wiese, the court’s chief judge, said in describing the event.
Holthus suffered some injuries but was back to work the next day.
Wiese credited court clerk Michael Lasso for acting quickly to protect the judge, saying he was the “primary person” who pulled Redden off “and probably kept her from having more severe injuries.”