Man said girlfriend deserved to die before punching and stabbing judge in court

WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT. A court date turned into complete chaos when a man attacked the judge who was overseeing his case, after telling the room that his girlfriend had 'deserved to die'

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It was supposed to be a standard court hearing - but it rapidly descended into violence, with the accused suddenly attacking the judge in charge of his case.

A 28-year-old man stood accused of murdering his 20-year-old girlfriend, Eileen Pelt, in his mother's car, ending her life by stabbing her in the neck. His mother told the police that her son had "forced her" to continue driving so he could dump Eileen's body near some woods.

He was on trial for the terrifying crime, when he was asked by the prosecutors why he had done it, for him to stun the court totally with his brutal answer: "She deserved to die".

Loud gasps were heard across in the courtroom after he uttered the words, with the man's family quickly beginning to protest that he was not well, and that because he was suffering from mental health issues, he was in no fit state to testify in his case.

Amid the chaos, the man's mother left the courtroom because she was so upset, and the judge decided enough was enough and called for a recess in the trial. The jury was sent out of the room, and as they filed out one by one, things took a terrifying turn.

The man, David Paradiso, who was on trial in San Joaquin County, jumped out of the witness box and suddenly attacked Superior Court Judge Cinda Fox, punching her before pulling an improvised weapon out and stabbing her with it repeatedly in her arm.

The six-inch metal 'knife' was one of two homemade weapons Paradiso had created, it would later be revealed by the investigation.

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Detective Eric Bradley, who had been one of the investigators into Paradiso's murder charge, jumped into action, approaching the bench and shooting the 28-year-old in the head three times - which killed the accused murderer instantly.

Paradiso's mother would later say that she believed this was exactly what her son, who was mentally ill, was hoping would happen: "I'm sure that's what he wanted," Debra Paradiso said, explaining she thought he was hoping to provoke the police in the court into ending his life by attacking the judge.

The accused murderer had been held on remand in prison for two years over the death of his girlfriend, and was found to have traces of methamphetamine in his system when a post-mortem was conducted.

His mother, Debra, had sounded the alarm a fortnight before the tragic incident unfolded, warning the local Sheriff's Office anonymously that she thought David had somehow made or got hold of a weapon - but her warning made no difference to the tragic ending to the trial.

"He had a weapon. We called, we told the jail two weeks ago, they searched his cell and they didn't find it," Debra said at the time. "Why didn't they thoroughly search him before he went in there [today]?

"He [David] jumped up on the thing, he tried to stab the judge, he stabbed her, they shot him in the head and they killed him," she continued. "They didn't believe he was crazy! Now do they believe he's crazy? What...does it take?"

His brother, Aaron, echoed these sentiments: "We reported all the mental problems, they were all documented, he told his lawyer he didn't want to go on the stand."

His brother heartbreakingly added, "Well, it's over now, right?"