Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009 | 3:17 p.m.
Bailiffs carried an inmate out of a Clark County courtroom this morning after the man started screaming at the judge and invoking the name of Adolph Hitler.
Ryan Clifford Thorsen, 22, was scheduled to be sentenced today after pleading guilty to one charge of battery by a prisoner for spitting on a guard at the Clark County Detention Center in May 2007.
District Court Judge Michael Villani asked Thorsen if he had anything to say, to which the inmate stood and replied, “I am a witness. Hitler said you would feel his wrath.”
The shackled Thorsen fell over in the jury box where he had been seated with at least a dozen other inmates. Two bailiffs grabbed him and carried him out of the courtroom, while he repeatedly screamed the same words.
His sentence hearing was rescheduled to Oct. 6.
Court records show that he has been examined by doctors at the Lake’s Crossing Center for mentally disordered offenders in Sparks. During the past few years, some doctors have found him competent to stand trial while others have disagreed.
Thorsen is serving up to five years in the Nevada prison system and was transferred to the county jail for his hearing.
He was convicted on the same charge after fracturing a jail guard’s nose five days after the spitting incident and was sentenced in July. He is serving a concurrent 30-month sentence for fighting with CCDC guards in December 2006 while awaiting arraignment on two charges of assault with a deadly weapon.
He pleaded guilty to stabbing two women in the back with hypodermic needles. The women were visitors to Fremont Street in September 2006. One was 13 years old at the time.
He received a 12-year sentence for the attacks.
Court records do not indicate if Thorsen is affiliated with a white supremacy group.
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