A Nevada judge torched a smirking murder suspect for laughing at the devastated family of an 11-year-old boy he’s charged with fatally shooting during a road-rage rampage last year, according to a report.
Tensions flared Tuesday when District Judge Jacqueline Bluth learned that Tyler Johns, accused of killing Brandon Dominguez during a violent Nov. 15 clash on a Las Vegas-area freeway, had smiled, jeered, and hurled insults at the victim’s family before his hearing began, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
“My courtroom is always very, very calm, even though emotions run very high in here,” the judge told the packed courtroom.
“And the reason why it runs so calmly is that I treat every single person that walks in those doors with dignity and respect.”
Bluth said she was informed the 22-year-old had laughed and called the child’s family names before she entered the courtroom, warning that if “it did happen, it will never happen again.”
While a victim’s advocate witnessed and reported the heartless exchange, Johns’ defense attorney, Ryan Helmick, denied the accusations, arguing that his client did not lob insults at the grieving family.
“It flat out did not happen,” Helmick insisted, noting Johns was upset about the claims, the outlet reported.
“This is a very tragic case, and Tyler is taking it very seriously. The tensions are high, but we don’t appreciate the allegations being made.”
Johns allegedly fired a fatal shot at an SUV he was warring with that struck the child seated in the backseat. The boy’s stepfather, Valente Ayala, was driving him to school when the deadly scuffle erupted on Interstate 215 in Henderson.
Police said the two men were aggressively jockeying for a lane on the jam-packed highway, prompting both to roll down their windows and scream at each other before the suspect allegedly pulled a handgun and opened fire on the victim’s car.
The young boy was pronounced dead at the scene and the alleged gunman was hit with first-degree murder and two counts of discharging a firearm.
Bodycam footage captured a seemingly guilt-ridden Johns surrendering to a responding officer, admitting the hotheaded drivers were “road raging” and that the boy’s death was “100 percent my fault.”
“I shot at him, bro,” Johns told the cop, as Ayala wailed in anguish on the side of the highway.
“I didn’t know there was a f—ing kid in the back and I killed him.”
Helmick argued Tuesday that the murder charge should be dropped, insisting that Johns had no intentions of shooting the boy and was unaware he was in the backseat, the outlet reported.
But the judge rejected his plea.
“If you fire a weapon not knowing and not meaning to hit a child and the child dies from it, you are on the hook for first-degree murder,” Bluth said.
Johns remains in custody at the Clark County Detention Center, with his trial slated to begin in November.
