Woman Who Pushed Elderly Man Off Bus To His Death Sentenced

A Las Vegas woman who pushed an elderly man off a bus to his death has been handed a prison sentence.

Cadesha Bishop, who was 25 years old at the time of the incident, had been travelling on a Las Vegas public transit bus in 2019. Serge Fournier, 74, saw her arguing and shouting profanities at other passengers on the bus, as captured in surveillance footage.

He asked her to be nicer to those around her, before attempting to leave the vehicle using his walker. However, as he turned his back to exit the bus, Bishop forcefully pushed him with both hands, causing him to topple out of the door and onto the pavement.

'His head landed approximately eight feet from the bus doorway,' the police report earlier detailed, with Fournier being pushed 'with enough force that he never touched any of the steps’. Bishop was also seen walking away from him without offering any assistance, instead leading her son away from the scene of the crime.

Fournier passed away a month later. Clark County Coroner-Medical Examiner ruled his death to be the result of complications arising from blunt force torso injuries, in addition to his death being a homicide.

Bishop was arrested soon after and held at Clark County Detention Centre on $100,000 bail, before being released and placed on ‘high-level’ electronic monitoring.

Nearly two years later, Bishop has been sentenced to eight to 20 years for abuse of an older person resulting in death, while also receiving credit for the 252 days of time served, as per CNN.

She pleaded guilty to the charge and asked the judge to be referred to 'some type of program', the Las-Vegas Review Journal reports. 'I’m just asking the court for help. The way that I’ve been portrayed, it’s just not fair for somebody who’s never been in trouble before,' she said.

'I’m sorry for my behaviour. I’m sorry for the way that I was portrayed in my lowest and weakest moment of my life,' Bishop also said during the hearing.

According to her attorney, Stephen Spelman, Bishop suffers 'from bipolar disorder and she reports PTSD... while never minimising the pain of the family’s loss, of course, nor being an excuse, it certainly helps me understand a little more how this tragedy might have come about'.

However, District Judge Tierra Jones replied, 'The actions in this case make you not a probation candidate. I’m not putting you on probation. That is not happening here today.'

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