Judge attacker pleads guilty but mentally ill

Jurist says she feared for her life when man lunged at her in Nevada courtroom

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LAS VEGAS A man whose courtroom attack on a judge in Las Vegas was recorded on video has pleaded guilty but mentally ill to attempted murder and other charges.

Deobra Delone Redden ended his trial Thursday after Clark County District Court Judge Mary Kay Holthus testified that she feared for her life when Redden vaulted over her bench and desk and landed on her.

The attack happened Jan. 3 as Holthus was about to deliver Redden’s sentence in a separate felony attempted battery case.

Holthus told jurors that she felt “defenceless” and that court officials and attorneys who came to her aid saved her life, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.