WEST JORDAN -- A state judge ordered the maximum prison term for a Bluffdale man convicted of assault and attempted murder in a shooting that paralyzed his neighbor.
Third District Court Judge Mark Kouris scolded Reginald Campos for a lack of contrition, then ordered back-to-back prison terms of up to five years for aggravated assault plus three years to life for attempted murder. Campos was also ordered to pay $44,260 in restitution.
A jury found 44-year-old Campos guilty in July of shooting David Serbeck on July 22, 2009. One bullet severed Serbeck's spinal cord, leaving him in a wheelcahir, paralyzed from the neck down.
"You have chained him to that chair for the rest of his life and you show no sympathy. I can't wrap my head around that," the judge told Kouris.
Last year, Serbeck, a member of the neighborhood watch group, testified that Campos was in a rage before the shooting, pacing back and forth and pointing his gun. Serbeck, who was also armed, said he put his own gun down and asked Campos to talk.
Police 911 tapes, however, recorded Campos telling a dispatcher three times that Serbeck had pulled a gun on him.
Prosecutors said Campos confronted Serbeck and fired two shots because he believed Serbeck and another man had harassed his daughter.
In court Thursday, Campos continued to assert that he acted in self-defense and said he hoped God could help Kouris see that he had told the truth.
The statement drew the ire of the judge, who said the self-defense claim was "pure crap."
"You don't get out of a car with a gun and then claim self-defense," Kouris said.
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