Ex-student sentenced to 16-plus years for 2022 attack on Las Vegas teacher

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LAS VEGAS — A teenager has been sentenced to 16 to 40 years in Nevada state prison after pleading guilty earlier to charges including attempted murder for an attack more than a year ago on a female Las Vegas high school teacher that left her with multiple injuries.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that prosecutors asked a judge Wednesday to sentence the 17-year-old to 22 to 55 years behind bars, but Clark County District Court Judge Kathleen Delaney said she was balancing the seriousness of the crime with other factors.

The defendant also pleaded guilty in April to attempted sexual assault and battery with use of a deadly weapon resulting in substantial bodily harm in plea deal that avoided trial in the after-school attack at Eldorado High School. Other charges against him were dropped.

The Associated Press has not named the teen because of his age nor the teacher because of the nature of the crime.

The defendant apologized in court and said he regretted what he had done. His court-appointed lawyer, Tyler Gaston, told the judge his client’s behavior was caused by side effects of an asthma medication he took that caused mood changes, night terrors and hallucinations, the Review-Journal reported.

The teacher did not return to her job and told the judge that she felt mentally and physically “imprisoned” since the attack in April 2022, which happened after classes had ended for the day.

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Las Vegas police said the teacher was punched and choked into unconsciousness and the student fled the high school campus before another school employee found the teacher and summoned police and medical help. The school serves about 2,000 students several miles (kilometers) east of downtown Las Vegas

The teenager was arrested later that day, and the woman was treated for multiple unspecified injuries, police said.

The attack was one of several examples of school violence that led to passage by the Nevada state Legislature and the signing by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo this year of a law known as the Safer and Supportive Schools Act.