Local News in Brief : Woman Faces Trial in Courthouse Gun Case

A Canyon Country woman was ordered Wednesday to stand trial on charges that she brought a loaded .25-caliber pistol and a hypodermic syringe into the San Fernando Courthouse.

Patricia Sue Smith, 28, was arrested June 30 on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon and also for carrying one gram of methamphetamine and a syringe in her purse, said Deputy Marshal Michael Rhoades.

Rhoades testified at Smith’s preliminary hearing that she paused briefly in the doorway of the courthouse to read signs that prohibit carrying guns into the building and then continued inside, setting off a metal-detector alarm.

She removed a leather pouch containing the loaded gun from her purse and placed it on a table near the detector, Rhoades testified.

She was arrested by deputy marshals, then taken to the San Fernando Police Station, where officers searched her purse and seized the methamphetamine and syringe, San Fernando Police Officer Fred Villanueva testified.

Smith, who works as a clerk in an auto parts store, said she had carried the pistol “for protection and self-defense” for nine years. She said she had gone to the courthouse for the sentencing of a friend, and did not see the signs forbidding guns in the courthouse.

She is free on $1,000 bail.