Suspect in robberies threatens prosecutor

Kim Smith

Friday, Feb. 2, 2001 | 11:27 a.m.

A suspect in a trio of robberies at the Treasure Island hotel-casino threatened the life of a prosecutor during court proceedings Thursday.

Reginald Johnson, 27, who had already pleaded guilty to five felony charges in connection with the three robberies, returned to court Thursday to take care of technical problems with his plea agreement.

As the attorneys were going through the plea agreement again, Johnson became upset when they mentioned that District Judge John McGroarty would watch videotapes of the robberies at his sentencing hearing next month.

Johnson told Deputy District Attorney Phil Brown that if the purpose of the tapes was to enhance his sentence they could do that without the tapes.

"Give me whatever the max is on this. If it's 300 years, give me that, and we'll get rid of the tape, punk," Johnson said.

When Brown began to object, Johnson then burst into obscenities.

He calmed down when the judge agreed to watch the videotapes in his chambers, but he erupted again when Brown sought to make sure the record showed Johnson had pleaded guilty to a particular charge.

"Bitch! I'll kill you bitch!" Johnson yelled.

After McGroarty and bailiffs calmed Johnson down, the plea agreement process continued and a sentencing date of March 13 was set.

Brown told Johnson that "being the gracious guy" that he is he would overlook the outburst.

Johnson pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery with use of a deadly weapon, one count of attempted robbery and two counts of attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon.

He will get eight to 80 years for the attempted murders and could get another five to 75 years on the other charges.

Police believe Johnson successfully robbed Treasure Island on July 12 and Oct. 30, but he was foiled by security measures that had been put into place before he tried robbing the hotel-casino again on Dec. 12.