Welfare office slasher gets up to 120 years

By Matt Pordum

Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2004 | 9:44 a.m.

A seven-time felon convicted of going on a stabbing rampage at the Clark County Social Services center in Henderson in December 2003 is not likely to outlive his prison sentence.

District Judge Donald Mosley on Tuesday sentenced 39-year-old Michael Tracy McLaughlin to 52 to 120 years in prison for the attack that left four people wounded.

Mosley also said the attack served as an example of a situation that could have been avoided if the country wasn't "so allergic to firearms."

"If he (the center's security guard) had a firearm, we wouldn't be here, we might have had a funeral, but not a trial," Mosley said. "Why don't we arm those in charge of security?"

Prosecutors alleged McLaughlin was upset with the quality and amount of benefits he was receiving from the social services center. Three days prior to the attack McLaughlin was told by his caseworker that he qualified for medical assistance but not the rent subsidy he wanted.

McLaughlin became enraged and stabbed, kicked and punched receptionist Kathy Atkinson, 56, security guard Steven Glenn, 32, and social worker Susan Rhodes, 55. He also attacked St. Therese Center volunteer Edward Johanns, 55.

Atkinson, Rhodes and Glenn suffered knife wounds. It's unclear whether Johanns' cut on the left side of his head by his ear -- a wound that required seven stitches -- was from a knife slash or a chair thrown at him by McLaughlin.

A Clark County jury on Aug. 13 found McLaughlin guilty on three counts of attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon and one count each of battery with use of a deadly weapon and burglary with use of a deadly weapon.

Prior to the sentencing, Deputy District Attorney Pam Weckerly urged Mosley to treat McLaughlin as a habitual criminal who "almost killed three people and severely injured a third."

"If he (McLaughlin) is ever let out he will re-offend," Weckerly said. "Now he's moved on to extremely violent crimes."

Rhodes, who said the left side of her head is permanently numb because of injuries sustained in the attack, asked Mosley to do everything in his power to prevent what happened to her and her co-workers from happening again.

"Ensure the safety of the residents of Clark County and take him off the streets for as long as humanly possible," Rhodes said. "If given the opportunity he would do it all over again."

McLaughlin, who showed no emotion during his trial, stood before Mosley with his head down and said "I'm profusely sorry, and I would like to apologize to all the people involved."

He said while there "was no excuse for my actions, I was not in the right frame of mind and I was totally gone."

Rhodes said although she is Jewish and had just celebrated Yom Kippur, a period of repentance and atonement in the faith, she did not forgive McLaughlin. She said offering remorsefulness at the time of sentencing seems "phony."

Deputy Public Defender Lynn Avants told the court that McLaughlin's brother had just kicked him out of the house they were sharing, and McLaughlin was on drugs when he went to the Social Services center.

Avants said his client found himself "homeless, and that put him in a different situation, which is no excuse, but tells us why he went back (to the Social Services center)."

Avants asked Mosley to do McLaughlin a favor and to "give him a little hope, something to work for while in prison" by issuing a sentence of closer to the 30 years to life in prison offer the prosecution had offered his client minutes before the jury was selected for his trial.

Mosley said in his 24 years on the bench only occasionally he has seen cases where the "victims are absolutely helpless" as they were in the case of McLaughlin's attack.

"You (McLaughlin) had a number of women and a security guard on his first day on the job with no weapon and you (McLaughlin) completely controlled them, you had the power of life and death over them."

Mosley equated McLaughlin's crime to someone who enters a school and goes from classroom to classroom randomly shooting defenseless victims.

After the sentencing, the victims and their friends left the courtroom in tears, feeling a sense of closure from the events that forever changed their lives.

"I'm just really glad it's finally all over," Rhodes said.

McLaughlin, who was living with a relative at the time of the rampage, has a lengthy arrest record. He had previously been charged with possession of drugs, possession of a weapon, burglary, car theft, driving under the influence and resisting arrest -- but most of the charges were either dropped or reduced to lesser offenses, according to court records. He was sentenced in 1999 to two to five years in prison for possession of a stolen vehicle, but available records don't show how long he actually served.