RENO, Nev. (AP) - A 45-year-old Reno man is headed to prison for beating his son with a belt when the youth couldn't pedal his bicycle up a hill and then strangling a Good Samaritan who tried to intervene.
Washoe District Judge Patrick Flanagan sentenced Shawn Newman on Wednesday to up to five years for felony attempted strangulation of Thomas Carmona Sr. on Sept. 14.
Carmona tried to come to the rescue of the 12-year-old boy near his middle school in northwest Reno before Newman started choking him with both hands.
The judge also sentenced him to a year for child endangerment but ordered the sentences served simultaneously. Newman testified he whipped the boy with a belt for disobeying his order to keep riding the bike.