Great-grandmother says trial delays led to attack on DUI defendant

By Ken Ritter, Associated Press

Published Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015 | 1:12 p.m.

Updated Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015 | 3:28 p.m.

A great-grandmother said Thursday she attacked a defendant in a Las Vegas courthouse hallway because she was frustrated by postponements in his trial in the March 2014 vehicle death of her son.

Lindona Thompson said she's 5-foot-2 and has multiple sclerosis, and she didn't think her punches in the Nov. 5 scuffle hurt Gary Richard Adair Jr.

"I just lost it," Thompson told The Associated Press. "It's been very hard on all the family and friends. We just want to get past this, and we can't."

Adair has pleaded not guilty to felony reckless driving and driving under the influence of drugs. He could face decades in prison if he's convicted. He's free on bail pending trial, which was reset to next March.

Prosecutors say the vehicle Adair was driving struck and killed Kadar Brown, 38, while Brown was changing a flat tire on the U.S. 95 freeway in Las Vegas.

Adair's lawyer, Daniel Martinez, called the attack unprovoked.

Martinez said Adair told him Thompson followed him out of the courtroom and began punching him in the back of the head.

Thompson, 64, who became a great-grandmother in September, said the encounter happened when she was on the way to a restroom.

She acknowledged hitting Adair "mainly in his back," when she said she encountered him in the hallway and he turned away from her.

Thompson said she received a summons to appear in court Dec. 31 on a misdemeanor battery charge. She could face six months in jail and a $1,000 fine if she's convicted.

"I was just so extremely frustrated. I just snapped," she said. "We just want to see him punished appropriately for what he did, and try and move on."