Two life terms added to hotel robber’s sentence

Kim Smith

Thursday, Oct. 11, 2001 | 9:18 a.m.

A man already serving 130 years for robbing the Treasure Island hotel three times had two no-parole life sentences added to his prison term Wednesday.

Chief Deputy District Attorney L.J. O'Neale said District Judge Nancy Saitta ruled that Reginald Johnson is a habitual criminal and ordered him to serve two concurrent life sentences in connection with an assault on another inmate.

Saitta ordered that the sentences be served after the robbery sentences imposed by District Judge John McGroarty in March, O'Neale said.

Johnson, who is known for his courtroom antics, apologized for throwing the man off a balcony in the Clark County Detention Center, O'Neale said.

Instead, Johnson said, he wishes he would have just knifed Oscar Irias, 31.

Johnson, 29, who was awaiting sentencing in the Treasure Island case, and convicted murderer Donte Johnson were charged with attempted murder in the attack on Irias.

Irias was treated at University Medical Center for arm injuries. He was sentenced to 12 to 30 months in prison in May after pleading guilty to lewdness with a minor under 14.

Although Reginald Johnson and Donte Johnson, who are not related, were already destined to spend the rest of their lives in prison, prosecutors filed charges against them anyway in the event their past convictions are overturned.

Reginald Johnson, however, pleaded guilty in the Irias case in July, with the condition that the charges against Donte Johnson be dismissed.

Reginald Johnson's attorney, Deputy Special Public Defender Gloria Navarro, said his decision was entirely altruistic.

Reginald Johnson was arrested in December shortly after his third robbery attempt at the Treasure Island was thwarted by security bars constructed after his second robbery.

He was found in the 5100 block of East Lake Mead Boulevard after police were called about a "suspicious person." He was found in a Santa Claus hat and a woman's nightgown.

Donte Johnson is on death row for shooting four young men in the back of the head during a residential robbery in August 1998. He was also sentenced earlier this week to an additional eight to 20 years in an unrelated case of attempted murder in which a Las Vegas man was left a quadraplegic.