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David Paradiso's attorney told ABC7 his client told the jury his girlfriend deserved to die. Paradiso was accused of stabbing her death. Paradiso's mother, upset that they let her son take the stand, burst out of the courtroom. Judge Cinda Fox called for a recess and that's when Paradiso attacked her.
The San Joaquin County Sheriff's Department says murder suspect Paradiso was testifying on the stand when, suddenly, he attacked Judge Cinda Fox who was on the bench a few feet away.
"Judge, how are you doing?" asked a reporter.
"I'm okay," Fox replied.
One man, who said he was in the courtroom, also left with non-life threatening injuries.
The San Joaquin County Sheriff's Department says the Lodi Police detective, in charge of the case, shot Paradiso several times and killed him. They're not sure how Paradiso smuggled the weapon into the courtroom.
"I want to go specifically what we said, 'It is an unknown cutting instrument,' is what has been described to me," said Detective Dave Konecay, from the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Department.
The sheriff's department offered few details, but Debra Paradiso, the deceased defendant's mother, was more than willing.
"You want to know what happened? I called the jail. I told them two weeks ago he had a weapon. They didn't look for it. My son David. He didn't want to get on the stand today. He told him he was sick. They went into chambers. He got on the stand. He started talking crazy. I walked out of the courtroom. He tried to stab the judge and they killed him," said Debra Paradiso.
"And I saw him press the gun into the Paradiso's right chest. Pow. And he shot him and Paradiso fell back," said Charles Pacheco, Paradiso's attorney.
On Wednesday night, Paradiso's defense attorney claimed his client was stable enough to testify and discredited the mother's account.
"She would have told me about it. She did not warn anybody about a weapon. Why wouldn't she tell me? And if she warned officials, these guys are not stupid and are not going to let him have a weapon in the jail," said Pacheco.
Investigators are still trying to figure out how he got that weapon. Pacheco believes his client smuggled the weapon into the courtroom by hiding it inside the tracking device cuffed to his ankle.
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