A new mother has been sent back to prison after a judge who had nullified her sentence for armed robbery was removed from the case

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Mia Christman, who is 30 years old, is from Clark County. Nevada, The state’s highest court has instructed Mia Christman to finish the remaining portion of her 10-year prison term for armed robbery after the judge who nullified the sentence, Judge Erika Ballou, was taken off the case. sentence Christman must go to prison by Wednesday. She has already served six years. During the 2013 armed robbery, her co-defendant assaulted a senior citizen with a pistol, and Christman led police on a chase that resulted in one person being injured.

The Nevada Supreme Court’s decision to imprison Christman comes after years of contentious battles in the courts.

After pleading guilty to two felony robbery charges over a decade ago, her defense attorneys emphasized that her actions as a young adult were largely due to the intense trauma and abuse she suffered from being sex trafficked as a young woman.

When she was 18, her alleged pimp Michael Saunders, who was 34 at the time, and she committed the armed robbery. Christman’s attorneys insisted that Saunders abused her, while prosecutors aimed to cast doubt on whether they were in a pimp-and-prostitute arrangement. KLASUltimately, Christman was given a 10-year sentence by Clark County District Court Judge Stefanie Miley.

Records show that an appeal followed, and it was Judge Erika Ballou who agreed to nullify the sentence, emphasizing Christman’s extensive history of severe psychological and physical abuse since childhood.

Christman had miscarried twins as a young woman and was put in a dog cage by one of her pimps when she was trafficked as a teenager in California. Her attorney informed the court that all of this greatly impacted her mental health and well-being.

For Ballou, these details were not adequately considered when the case was before Miley. Ballou also believed that Christman’s original defense attorneys did not offer her effective representation. Transcripts show that Miley partially disagreed with Ballou’s assessment. While Miley acknowledged that obtaining in-depth knowledge about Christman’s abuse could have influenced her sentencing decisions, she ultimately remained unmoved. Even if a comprehensive psychiatrist’s report had been included in the initial sentencing memorandum from prosecutors, it would not have changed her mind, as indicated by a partial transcript of Miley’s testimony found in a 2021 state petition.

Any sympathy Miley had for Christman led her to keep the young woman out of custody before her final sentencing.

However, Miley also conveyed to Ballou that at times, it seemed as though Christman may have been manipulating the system, as shown in a transcript.

Both Miley and Steve Wolfson, one of the district attorneys prosecuting Christman’s case, argued that the young woman took advantage of the court system by, for instance, claiming she would provide prosecutors and investigators with valuable information about her co-conspirators and then failing or refusing to do so.

The Nevada supreme court overturned Ballou's decision in 2022 but Ballou did not follow it and did not tell Christman to go to prison.

Last year, Ballou was once again told to enforce the decision, but once again, Ballou did not do it.

May 3 court order

In an interview with KLAS this April, Christman said after being released from prison, she has kept her life on track. She's working as a barber's apprentice and found housing in California through a program. She even had a baby that, even though she used protection and birth control, she said.

cried through much of a recent interview before being ordered to return to prison

and expressed the deep regret she still feels for the victims of her now decade-old crime. The person she injured in a car crash has also forgiven her, saying they think Christman deserves to be free after serving her time already. Prosecutors argue that Christman's pleas are a distraction. notes.

Her lawyer did not immediately respond to the request for comment on Wednesday.

She Christman's request for a pardon was turned down by the Nevada Pardons Board this March. Meanwhile, her supposed pimp is reportedly serving a prison sentence for a different crime involving charges of voluntary manslaughter. He did eight years for the 2013 armed robbery. As Law&Crime

previously reported

, Ballou was hit with two charges by the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline this January. She is accused of violating a number of ethical rules including posting inappropriate social media posts. A photo uploaded to Instagram by the judge where she appeared in a hot tub with two public defenders was one such post. She and the other woman in the hot tub wore bikinis. The man was bare-chested. Ballou said the man was “surrounded by great t—.”

Left: Clark County District Court Judge Erika Ballou, left, appears in an image with two public defenders; Right: Ballou appears in a selfie (Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline)

Ballou's current term is scheduled to end in 2027. Mia Christman, 30, of Clark County, Nevada has been ordered by the state’s high court to complete the rest of a prison sentence for the armed robbery of a senior citizen that happened over 20 years ago after the judge who canceled the sentence — Judge Erika Ballou — has been taken off the case. She must report to prison Wednesday., Ballou was hit with two charges by the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline this January. She is accused of violating a number of ethical rules including posting inappropriate social media posts. One such post was a photo uploaded to Instagram by the judge where she appeared in a hot tub with two public defenders. She and the other woman in the hot tub wore bikinis. The man was bare-chested. Ballou said the man was “surrounded by great t—.”

Ballou’s current term is slated to end in 2027.