LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The brutal attack on a Nevada District Court judge sent shock waves through the tight-knit judicial community of Nevada.
Deobra Reddon, 30, jumped the bench Wednesday to attack Judge Mary Kay Holthus after she decided his criminal history warranted prison time when he asked for probation. He refused to appear in court Thursday to face his new charges after the attack.
WARNING: THIS VIDEO CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE, VIOLENCE. VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Reddon was in court Wednesday to be sentenced for aggravated battery with substantial bodily harm. He entered a guilty plea in a previous hearing.
Our 13 chief investigator, Darcy Spears, looked deeper into the defendant. His attorney explained that Reddon had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. He told Judge Holthus he was a "changed man" and understood that she must do what feels right.
13 INVESTIGATES: Courtroom attacker who jumped judge on bench is mentally ill repeat offender
KTNV anchor Tricia Kean sat with retired Chief Justice of the Nevada Supreme Court, Michael Cherry. He says this should never have happened and that it could change protection for judges.
"I'm sure the people in charge of the RJC, the court administrators, will look at this and see, should we have a second marshal in there or a marshal stand between the judge and a defendant being sentenced?" Cherry said. "What about civil cases? What if a person gets out of line in a civil case?"
Cherry says he has known Judge Holthus since she started as a DA. He says she's a great judge.
"It's just unbelievable. What a shame. We must ask, has bail reform gone to the point where certain people are out of custody? I think this fellow should not have been out of custody," he said. "We endangered that. That judge's life, the marshal's life, the law clerk's life."
Those who have been in contact with Holthus say she is still sore and in shock over the brutal attack.
See the full interview between Cherry and Kean here:
Kean: You know the judge in this case, and you were just appalled. Your reaction that something like this could ever happen.
Cherry: What a horrifying event for a judge and her family. The folks in the courtroom, the staff, and those participating in other cases. I couldn't believe what happened.
Kean: This video has gone viral. It's seen across the country. I mean, you've said that you've served. You've been here in the legal community for many years since 1970.
Cherry: I've been here 53 years. I was a district court judge for eight years and a Supreme Court justice for 12 years. And now I'm a senior justice and senior judge, so I'm still working.
Kean: You said you've never seen anything like it with all that all the time you've served.
Cherry: There have been a couple of events. There was a judge sitting in my courtroom. It was a murder case, and the defendant charged the witness who was testifying against him. That happened.
There have been periods when people got sentenced and turned around and tried to run out of the courtroom. Otherwise, I must say, and I want everybody to know that everybody did what they were supposed to do yesterday for the judge. I heard that the marshal was hurt terribly, and the judge was also. But everybody was doing what they were supposed to do.
When we have the sentencing, if somebody is going to be sentenced, whether they're going to get probation or they're going to be sent to prison, we always have a routine of the correction officers and the marshal standing behind the defendant because if they're sentenced to jail, they're hooked up right away. They're put in the jury box, waiting to go to a Clark County detention center, and then shipped to jail. Everybody did what they were supposed to do yesterday. It's just this guy got way out of hand, and he'll be severely punished for this.
I've never seen anybody do something like that to a judge. Usually, in my experience of being a public defender, a special public defender, or a judge, defendants are pretty courteous to judges, and they know if they get out of line, the marshals and the correction officers will take action against them. So this guy, I don't know what was going through his mind. I watched the video and saw him say he wanted probation. He was getting his life in order. And the judge looked at the records, all the previous felonies and misdemeanors. What this guy has done in his 30 years — he's got a terrible record. One of the questions I ask is, "What's a guy like this doing in our custody?"
The bail reform happened when I was on the Supreme Court. It's a good idea. I was the chairman of the Defense Commission for 11 years when I was up in Carson City, making sure that indigent criminal defendants got good representation. We made sure that. But something like this is just unbelievable. What a shame.
We must ask, has bail reform gone to the point where certain people are out of custody? I think this was a fellow who should not have been out of custody. We endangered that. That judge's life, the marshal's life, the law clerk's life, the clerk of the court.
Kean: It's a terrible situation. Watching this, I think judges need to be more protected. There should be either a bulletproof glass or something.
Cherry: During COVID, we had things up so that if people approached the bench, they were protected from getting COVID. I don't know if that's going to be necessary. This is one in a million times that this happened.
I've been here for 53 years in the courtrooms almost daily, either as an attorney or a judge. I was reading some of the events where people have gotten out of line in court. It was less than a dozen events in the years that I've been here.
I'm sure the people in charge of the RJC, the court administrators, will look at this and see if we should have a second marshal in there or a marshal stand in between the judge and a defendant who's being sentenced. And what about civil cases? What if a person gets out of line in a civil case? You know, we have one marshal per courtroom. And my marshal, who has been my marshal for eight years, was super. He was great at protecting me all the time.
I feel so, so sorry for Mary Kay. I know her whole family; some of her kids are lawyers. I hope she's okay.
Kean: We wish her the best.
Cherry: I do. I'm fond of her. I've known her since the day she started as a DA. It's heartbreaking. I'm just so sad over this whole thing. I hope steps are taken if somebody, like anything else, experiences a tragedy like this. We look at it and see if we should do something else. But I would say we've got to be careful about who's released from custody.
Kean: Especially with mental illness.
Cherry: And mental illness and previous records of violence.
