A man whose courtroom assault on a United States judge earlier in the year, caught on video and widely shared online, was sentenced on Tuesday to a prison term of up to 65 years.
On Tuesday, Judge Johnson handed down the sentence, describing the assault as “an attack on the judiciary.” Addressing the defendant, she said, “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.”
The attacker, 31-year-old Deobra Redden, carried out the assault on Clark County District Court Judge Mary Kay Holthus in January, leaping over her 4-foot-high (1.2-meter-high) bench and desk as she was sentencing him in an unrelated felony battery case.
Redden, who pleaded guilty but mentally ill in September to attempted murder and other charges, was sentenced to serve between 26 and 65 years in a Nevada prison.
During the trial, Judge Holthus recounted fearing for her life when Redden launched the attack.
Defense attorney Carl Arnold explained that Redden had stopped taking his prescribed schizophrenia medication before the incident occurred.
Arnold stated that the plea deal represented “a delicate balance between accepting responsibility for a regrettable incident and recognising the impact of Mr. Redden’s untreated mental illness at the time.”
The defense attorney also shared that Redden was deeply remorseful after seeing the courtroom footage.
“The first time that he saw the entire video… his reaction was very visceral. It was almost like he wanted to throw up,” Arnold said. “He called himself a monster. ‘That’s me? I did that? I did not mean to hurt that woman like that.'”
The courtroom footage showed Redden forcing the 62-year-old judge backward as he grabbed her hair and knocked down an American flag.
Although Judge Holthus sustained injuries during the attack, she did not require hospitalization, according to courthouse officials.
During the sentencing, Redden expressed his remorse, “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,” he said, according to AP reports citing KLAS-TV.
Redden will be eligible for parole after 2050.
