Las Vegas judge’s controversial decision at center of woman’s case
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – Will a Las Vegas woman be sent back to prison?
Mia Christman insists she is not the same person she was before she was sent to prison. Christman, now 30, was 18 when she was part of a violent crime spree.
“I did make my mistakes,” Christman told the 8 News Now Investigators. “I was also a victim. I was a kid.”
Christman took part in an armed robbery, a home invasion where one victim was a senior citizen, and led police on a car chase which resulted in another driver being severely injured.
“I’m so sorry,” Christman said. “I pray for them every day.”
Christman was represented by several attorneys, most recently defense attorney Betsy Allen who continued to appeal the case.
“She has a very long history with trauma,” Allen told the 8 News Now Investigators.
Christman claims her co-defendant, Michael Saunders, was her pimp.
“She was 18. He was almost 34,” Allen said. “She was totally under his control.”
In 2021, Clark County District Court Judge Erika Ballou vacated Christman’s sentence pointing to her previous attorney’s “lackluster performance.”
Ballou also pointed to Christman’s parents who are both convicted felons. Her father is currently serving a prison sentence and had previous convictions and arrests for violent crimes.
The judge also referenced the sexual, physical, and emotional abuse Christman suffered as a child and a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder.
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Ballou also heard testimony from former Clark County District Court Judge Stefanie Miley who sentenced Christman. Miley said had she been made aware of Christman’s extensive history, it could have changed her decision. However, she was already aware that Christman had been the victim of sex trafficking in a California case in which her accused pimp kept her in a cage. She had given Christman at least two chances before she was sentenced to remain out of custody and Christman failed to show up in court.
Miley felt Christman was “gaming the system,” according to court transcripts.
Prosecutors do, too.
“She convinced the authorities that she was going to cooperate and provide information about her co-conspirators so she was released from custody so she could cooperate. That’s how the system works sometimes,” Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said. “She failed to cooperate. She absconded and then it was years later that she then raises the subject about being a sex trafficking victim.”
Prosecutors have no proof Christman’s co-defendant was her pimp, according to Wolfson.
Christman was released from prison as a result of Ballou’s decision after serving six of the minimum of ten years she was originally sentenced.
The Nevada Supreme Court ordered Ballou to send Christman back to prison which she has not done.
“I believe that she defied the Supreme Court orders. Twice,” Wolfson said.
Wolfson told the 8 News Now Investigators that it is extremely rare for a judge to defy orders from Nevada’s high court.
In the meantime, Christman relocated to California and found housing through a program. She said she is part of a barber apprenticeship.
Christman also had a baby.
“Well let me clarify. I didn’t just go and get knocked up,” Christman said. “I used protection. My son was made and conceived with protection and birth control. It was God’s will at that point.”
Christman went to the Nevada Pardons Board in March.
The victim of the car crash Christman caused wrote a letter stating that she forgives Christman and believes she should be given an opportunity to prove she turned her life around.
The Pardons Board denied Christman’s request.
Attorney General Aaron Ford said he believed sex trafficking should be considered, but he was in the minority.
Supreme Court Justice Douglas Herndon pointed to Ballou’s actions.
“This is kind of turning our pardons process on its head,” Herndon said. “The walls are closing in on the District Court that is shockingly refusing to do its job.”
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Ballou had ordered Christman to surrender on April 23rd but then canceled the surrender date. She set another evidentiary hearing for May.
Christman said she was concerned that if she had to go back to prison, her baby could end up in the same child welfare system she was once in.
Saunders had been sentenced to a minimum of eight years and was released from prison. He is now serving a separate sentence for a voluntary manslaughter charge after prosecutors said he killed a man.
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