LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A 31-year-old girl who rammed her boyfriend with a automotive, killing him, after discovering one other girl’s tampon within the trash, will serve at the least 12 years in jail, a choose dominated Tuesday.
In Could 2024, Julie Bush killed Richard “Rick” Penardo Jr., 51, throughout a struggle exterior a house close to Oakey Boulevard and Jap Avenue within the east valley.
Whereas talking with police, Bush mentioned she discovered one other girl’s tampon within the trash and confronted Penardo about it. The 2 started to argue, and Penardo “retrieved a long, steel chain from the residence and went over to her vehicle,” paperwork mentioned. “He then started to swing the chain around, breaking the windows of Bush’s vehicle.”
Bush then allegedly accelerated the automotive, hitting Penardo and inflicting him to fly into the air and collide with a brick wall, paperwork mentioned. Bush drove away and returned to the house thrice in a number of minutes earlier than ramming Penardo, prosecutors mentioned.
Final March, Bush took a plea deal on voluntary manslaughter and DUI-with-death expenses, data mentioned. On Tuesday, as a part of the deal, Clark County District Courtroom Choose Carli Kierny sentenced Bush to 12-35 years in jail.
Earlier than Kierny learn her sentence, Bush’s public defender famous Bush was the mom of a now-5-year-old lady and that body-camera video confirmed she was remorseful for her actions.
“I love him very much,” Bush advised Kierny. “I’m sorry that he passed away and I wish I could change it, but I can’t, and I know there’s not a sentence in the world that’s going to make anybody satisfied.”
Throughout a number of court docket hearings, prosecutors mentioned a doorbell digicam captured the complete incident, which they mentioned reveals Bush driving instantly into Penardo. In court docket Tuesday, prosecutors mentioned the tampon probably belonged to Penardo’s roommate.
“Rick wasn’t perfect,” Pernado’s mom, Grace Fisher, advised the court docket. “He made plenty of mistakes and poor choices during his life. His biggest mistake was ever getting involved with Julie Bush. She made his life a living hell.”
With credit score for time served, Bush will probably be eligible for parole in 2036.
Penardo served jail time on expenses of forgery, accent to felony, conspiracy to commit homicide and insurance coverage fraud, data mentioned. In his most up-to-date case, a choose sentenced him to 3-10 years in jail for unemployment insurance coverage fraud. Prosecutors filed the claims whereas Penardo and his codefendants have been incarcerated, officers mentioned on the time of his sentencing.
Earlier than that, Penardo took an Alford plea, which means he didn’t admit guilt however agreed prosecutors had sufficient proof to persuade a jury to convict him for his position within the dying of Maria Marino in 2008. Marino died from ligature strangulation in 2008. Penardo then helped two girls, together with his then-wife, get rid of Marino’s physique on Mt. Charleston, paperwork mentioned. Choose Carolyn Ellsworth sentenced him to 2-5 years in jail.
