WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT. A court date descended into total chaos when a man attacked the judge overseeing his case, after telling the courtroom that his girlfriend had ‘deserved to die’.
It was supposed to be a standard court hearing, but it quickly descended into violence: the defendant suddenly attacked the judge overseeing his case.
A 28-year-old man was accused of murdering his 20-year-old girlfriend, Eileen Pelt, in her mother’s car, ending her life by stabbing her in the neck. Her mother told police that her son had “forced” her to keep driving so he could dump Eileen’s body near a forest.
He was being tried for the terrible crime when prosecutors asked him why he had done it, only to shock the court with his brutal response: “She deserved to die.”
Loud gasps could be heard in the courtroom after the words were spoken, and the man’s family quickly began protesting that he was unwell and that, because he was suffering from mental health issues, he was not fit to testify in his case.
In the midst of the chaos, the man’s mother left the courtroom because she was very upset, and the judge decided enough was enough and called a recess in the trial. The jury was dismissed from the courtroom, and as they filed out one by one, things took a terrifying turn.
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The man, David Paradiso, who was on trial in San Joaquin County, jumped from the witness stand and suddenly attacked Superior Court Judge Cinda Fox, punching her before pulling out an improvised weapon and repeatedly stabbing her in the arm.
The six-inch metal ‘knife’ was one of two homemade weapons Paradiso had created, as research would later reveal.
Detective Eric Bradley, who had been one of the investigators on the Paradiso murder charge, sprang into action, approaching the bank and shooting the 28-year-old man in the head three times, killing the killer instantly.
Paradiso’s mother would later say that she believed this was exactly what her mentally ill son hoped would happen: “I’m sure that’s what he wanted,” Debra Paradiso said, explaining that she thought he was hoping to provoke the police in court into ending his life by attacking the judge.
The accused killer had been on remand for two years for the death of his girlfriend and was found to have traces of methamphetamine in his system when an autopsy was carried out.
His mother, Debra, had raised the alarm a fortnight before the tragic incident occurred, anonymously warning the local sheriff’s office that she thought David had somehow made or obtained a gun, but her warning made no difference to the tragic end of the trial.
“He had a gun. We called, we told the jail two weeks ago, they searched his cell and didn’t find it,” Debra said at the time. “Why didn’t they search him thoroughly before going in there? [today]?
“He [David] “He jumped on the thing, tried to stab the judge, stabbed her, they shot him in the head and killed him,” he continued. “They didn’t think he was crazy! Now do you think he’s crazy? What… is needed?”
His brother Aarón echoed these sentiments: “We reported all the mental problems, they were all documented, he told his lawyer that he did not want to take the stand.”
His brother added heartbreakingly: “Well, it’s over now, right?”
