Lodi, Ca., murder suspect David Paradiso was shot and killed by a police detective yesterday after he leapt from the witness stand and attacked a judge with a shank, reports the Lodi News-Sentinel. Judge Cinda Fox was injured but was alert and awake when she was taken from the courtroom on a stretcher. Paradiso, 29, had resumed testifying in his own defense when he made a statement about his victim that caused a disruption in the courtroom.
During the diversion, Paradiso suddenly lunged toward the judge and began trying to stab her. A bailiff tried to pull him off the judge, then Lodi Police Detective Eric Bradley fired three shots at close range. “He was going after her jugular, just as he did to the victim in this case,” said his attorney, Chuck Pacheco. “He was not stopping stabbing her, going for her neck. Bradley did the right thing.” Paradiso did not deny murdering his girlfriend, mounting a defense that he was in a methamphetamine-induced psychosis. He had testified Tuesday for several hours, talking in a calm, monotone manner about how he killed the young woman.