Prosecutor Is Assaulted After Guilty Verdict

A gang member who had just been convicted on robbery and rape charges bolted from behind the defense table in court Tuesday, pummeling a deputy district attorney before four deputies pulled him off, authorities said.

Jurors had just delivered their guilty verdicts in the Santa Ana courtroom when Willie Hubert Knox, 23, jumped toward Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. John Conley, said court clerk Sue Hauer. As jurors looked on in shock, Knox allegedly knocked Conley from his chair before striking him in the face, she said.

“The jurors were pretty frightened,” Hauer said.

Conley, a 27-year veteran prosecutor who was elected to a judgeship this year, was taken to St. Joseph Hospital in Orange and treated for minor injuries to his face and forehead, said district attorney spokeswoman Tori Richards.

“He had a large bump on his forehead and some cuts on his face,” she said.

Knox was convicted of invading an Irvine home last year, robbing the residents and raping a woman in front of her 16-year-old son. Two other defendants, Jesus Arroyo Lule, 18, and Tyrone Ray, 22, will be tried May 15.

“This incident shows how dangerous this individual is, and attorneys shouldn’t let their guards down for a minute,” Richards said, adding that the office will ask Lule and Ray be shackled during their trials.

Marshal Capt. Paul Gushard, in charge of court security, said criminal defendants are rarely restrained during trial to avoid prejudicing jurors.

“In this case, he waited until [after the verdict] to act out,” Gushard said.

Knox faces 25 years to life in prison for the Irvine rape and robbery. Prosecutors said they also plan to charge him with assault.

Courtroom outbursts are not uncommon, officials said, but they rarely end in violence. Most recently, Hung Thanh Mai, the man convicted of murdering CHP Officer Don Burt Jr., had to be restrained when he tried to upend the defense table during the penalty phase of his trial. No one was hurt in that incident, which happened one floor below the courtroom in Knox’s case.

“It happens periodically,” Marshal Lt. Ann Ortiz said. “They usually target defense attorneys. I think this is the first time a [prosecutor] was attacked.”