A Madison County judge wants the government center’s security policy clarified after a Grant County sheriff’s employee was able to bring a loaded handgun into the courtroom during a hearing in which his daughter’s murderer pleaded guilty to the slaying.

Madison Superior Court 3 Judge Thomas Newman Jr., who is also the chief judge of the unified courts, said he brought the issue up during the monthly unified courts judges’ meeting on Thursday.

Newman became upset after learning Grant County Sheriff’s Department employee Willie Clariett, the father of Lorene “Tami” Love, brought a handgun into Newman’s courtroom and sat in the front row and directly behind Darrell Edmonds on Feb. 5

Edmonds, 18, Anderson, was in court to plead guilty to killing Love.

Clariett was wearing his sheriff’s uniform and was let through courthouse security with his service handgun, Newman said. Newman said he didn’t know what had happened, or Clariett’s relationship to Love, until two days after the hearing.

“I was just upset,” Newman said Friday. “I was just mortified. I was stunned.”

The judge said he wants the county’s ordinance that prohibits weapons inside the Madison County Government Center changed to keep all weapons off the fourth floor, where the superior and circuit courtrooms are located.

“We sort of haven’t resolved it yet,” Newman said after meeting with the other judges. “We basically felt strongly that there shouldn’t be any weapons on the third or fourth floor.

“We want to check the ordinance out before we proceed any further.”

The ordinance, enacted nearly 20 years ago, prohibits any “deadly weapon” inside the government center or in any vehicle on the property. The ordinance defines a deadly weapon as a loaded or unloaded firearm, stun gun, chemical substance, knife or any item that is “readily capable of causing serious bodily injury.”

Some people are exempted from the 1989 ordinance, however, including most law enforcement officers on duty. Off-duty officers aren’t permitted to carry a handgun in the building.

U.S. employees authorized to carry a deadly weapon are also excluded from the ordinance and “employees of express companies when engaged in company business.”

It wasn’t immediately clear if Clariett, who couldn’t be reached for comment, was off duty when he attended the hearing. Grant County Sheriff Darrell Himelick didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

The Madison County Government Center usually has at least one armed security guard stationed at a walk-through metal detector at the building’s entrance. There are usually two others throughout the building.

Newman said if he has to, he’ll station a security guard equipped with a hand-held metal detector in front of his courtroom.

“Believe it or not, I’m going to guarantee it won’t happen again,” he said.

Madison County Sheriff Ron Richardson said he learned of the incident from sheriff’s department employees after Edmonds’ hearing. He said there were additional uniformed and plainclothes officers in the courtroom at the time, but he wasn’t certain if they were brought in after learning Clariett was there of if the extra officers were already there because the hearing was expected to be emotionally charged.

“At no time did (Clariett) display any conduct unbecoming,” Richardson said. “We’re all very thankful that nothing happened. My concerns are (that) emotions flow.”

Richardson said he had spoken with Himelick, who told him it’s their department’s policy that officers aren’t allowed to carry a handgun when at any courthouse on personal business. Himelick didn’t know Clariett went to the hearing, according to Richardson.

“He was disappointed because he said the officer knew better,” Richardson.

It wasn’t known if Clariett had been disciplined for the incident.

Richardson sent out an e-mail to all the other sheriffs in the state, asking them how they deal with such a security issue. Once that research is complete, he said, he’d again meet with Newman and the county commissioners. But changing the ordinance, Richardson said, is ultimately up to the commissioners.

Madison County Commission President John Richwine, R-North District, wasn’t immediately available for comment.

Newman said he’d meet again with the other judges after Edmonds is slated to be sentenced on March 6, but before he starts his vacation at the end of the that week.

Edmonds, originally charged with murder, pleaded guilty to reckless homicide, a Class C felony, at the Feb. 5 hearing.

According to the terms of his plea agreement, he'll be sentenced to eight years behind bars, the maximum for a Class C felony. He'll serve a three-year term — the maximum — on a single count of pointing a firearm, a Class D felony. He'll serve both sentences at the same time.

Edmonds faced 45 to 65 years in prison had he been convicted of the murder charge.

He is expected to be formally sentenced at 10 a.m. Monday, March 5.

According to witness accounts in court documents, Edmonds had been arguing with another man, Markece Simon, in the front yard of a home in the 1500 block of Fulton Street on Aug. 25, across the street from Love's residence.

Witnesses said Edmonds fired a bullet at the man, but missed him, hitting Love in the head. The mother of four had been sitting on her porch, talking with friends and died almost instantly.