A look back at violent courtroom incidents in Nevada

Wednesday’s attack on Clark County judge Mary Kay Holthus by a defendant being sentenced in an attempted battery case serves as a dramatic reminder that court can be disturbing and even deadly.

Tensions run high in courthouses, where life-altering judgments are cast, yet instances of violence are rare.

One of the more notorious and tragic incidents of courthouse violence in Las Vegas happened on Jan. 4, 2010, when a 72-year-old courtroom security officer was killed in a shooting.

Stan Cooper, a retired Las Vegas police officer, was gunned down after Johnny Lee Wicks, 66, opened fire at about 8 a.m. in the lobby of the Lloyd George U.S. Courthouse in downtown Las Vegas.

Wicks, armed with a shotgun, retreated back outside and was gunned down in a shootout that also left Deputy U.S. Marshal Richard “Joe” Gardner injured.

Authorities believe Wicks bore a grudge against the federal government after losing a federal lawsuit over denial of some disability benefits.

In June 2006, Reno Family Court Judge Chuck Weller was shot by wealthy pawn shop owner Darren Mack, who had also just shot and killed his estranged wife Charla.

After murdering his wife, Mack drove to a parking structure in downtown Reno and used a rifle to shoot Weller as he stood at the window in his courthouse office 170 yards away.

Weller, who had been presiding over the couple’s divorce, survived the shooting and announced his retirement in 2020, according to The Associated Press. Mack was sentenced to a minimum of 36 years in prison.

In December 2003, a man who had just been convicted of killing his girlfriend attacked Clark County prosecutor David Stanton.

Taiwan Allen was being escorted from the courtroom when he “repeatedly punched Stanton in the back of the head,” the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported in a Dec. 16, 2003, story.

“After the jury had left, the defendant … cold-cocked him,” prosecutor Clark Peterson said.

Paramedics wheeled Stanton out of the courthouse on a stretcher, with a brace placed around his neck, and he was treated at University Medical Center and released.

Two years earlier, in March 2001, convicted felon Lorenzo Duarte- Lozano had just been sentenced in a Las Vegas federal court to just under four years in prison for illegally re-entering the country after he had been deported.

Unhappy with the ruling, Duarte- Lozano, 24, turned and smacked his attorney, John Ham, in the face.

“Obviously he was unhappy with the sentence, as a vast majority of the defendants are, but nobody expected this,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Bork.

Contact Brett Clarkson at bclarkson@reviewjournal.com.