ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: Wednesday, March 4, 2009 at 4:16 p.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, March 4, 2009 at 4:22 p.m.
STOCKTON ? A Lodi man on trial for murder was shot and killed Wednesday after attacking a Stockton judge in a San Joaquin County courtroom.
A county spokeswoman said the defendant, David Paradiso, was fatally shot after leaving the stand and attacking Superior Court Judge Cinda Fox.
Spokeswoman Karen McConnell said Paradiso had been testifying at about 2 p.m. when his mother, in the audience, left the courtroom upset. McConnell said Fox called a recess and as jurors filed out, Paradiso left the stand and approached the judge.
Witnesses say he lifted her from behind and began punching and possibly stabbing her when bailiffs ran to her aid and shots rang out.
The Stockton Record newspaper reported that a Lodi police detective who was in the courtroom shot Paradiso.
The Record said Fox was taken out of the courtroom on a stretcher. She was seen sitting up, with bandages around her left forearm. Her sleeve was torn and blood-spattered.
Another man, who may have been a juror, was removed from the courtroom on a stretcher. He also appeared alert and conscious, but had no obvious signs of injury, the Record said.
Paradiso, 28, is on trial for murder for allegedly stabbing his 20-year-old girlfriend, Eileen Pelt, in the neck in the back seat of his mother?s Chrysler 300 as she drove through the streets of Lodi.
Published: Wednesday, March 4, 2009 at 4:16 p.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, March 4, 2009 at 4:22 p.m.
STOCKTON ? A Lodi man on trial for murder was shot and killed Wednesday after attacking a Stockton judge in a San Joaquin County courtroom.
A county spokeswoman said the defendant, David Paradiso, was fatally shot after leaving the stand and attacking Superior Court Judge Cinda Fox.
Spokeswoman Karen McConnell said Paradiso had been testifying at about 2 p.m. when his mother, in the audience, left the courtroom upset. McConnell said Fox called a recess and as jurors filed out, Paradiso left the stand and approached the judge.
Witnesses say he lifted her from behind and began punching and possibly stabbing her when bailiffs ran to her aid and shots rang out.
The Stockton Record newspaper reported that a Lodi police detective who was in the courtroom shot Paradiso.
The Record said Fox was taken out of the courtroom on a stretcher. She was seen sitting up, with bandages around her left forearm. Her sleeve was torn and blood-spattered.
Another man, who may have been a juror, was removed from the courtroom on a stretcher. He also appeared alert and conscious, but had no obvious signs of injury, the Record said.
Paradiso, 28, is on trial for murder for allegedly stabbing his 20-year-old girlfriend, Eileen Pelt, in the neck in the back seat of his mother?s Chrysler 300 as she drove through the streets of Lodi.
