Judge who oversaw high profile murder cases leaving bench for mediation job

A Clark County District Court judge who has overseen high profile murder cases is leaving the bench to become a mediator.

District Judge Jacqueline Bluth, who was appointed by Gov. Steve Sisolak in 2019 and is one of the judges who handles homicide cases, said the decision was difficult.

But, she said, “I don’t feel like I’m leaving the pursuit of justice. I feel like I’m achieving it now through a different way.”

Bluth first walked into the Regional Justice Center as a 25-year-old interning for District Judge Mark Denton and never left, she said.

Now 44, she worked as a prosecutor before taking the bench. “I really think being a judge will always be the privilege and honor of my lifetime,” she said in a Thursday interview at her office.

Her resignation is effective Jan. 5. The Nevada Commission on Judicial Selection will fill the vacancy and applications are due Nov. 18.

One of Bluth’s major cases involved a pair of men who struck and killed Andreas Probst, a retired police chief, in 2023 when they were teens.

Following an agreement between the defendants and prosecutors, she sentenced Jesus Ayala and Jzamir Keys to 20 years to life and 18 years to life respectively last year.

When the owner of Advanced Resolution Management, a mediation service, approached her, she was hesitant, but met with him over dinner and heard about his passion for mediation, she said. She left with a decision to make and struggled with her choice.

She said she thought about Jackie Glass, the former judge, Advanced Resolution Management mediator and wife of District Attorney Steve Wolfson who died in August.

Bluth considered Glass a friend and mentor.

“She was always talking about living your best life,” Bluth said. “And I thought to myself, ‘Am I living my best life?’”

Bluth, who became emotional during an interview, described herself as a workaholic. “My family has sacrificed a lot,” she said. “My children have sacrificed a lot.”

At a family meeting, her oldest son encouraged her to take the job that would give her the most time with her family. As she thought about the choice, she said she considered her personal life and how she could help people.

People don’t always recognize the emotional impact of litigation in addition to its financial impact, Bluth said. She has handled settlement conferences in civil and criminal cases and learned that “people just want to be heard,” she said.

She enjoyed that one-on-one contact and came to realize that mediation was another way to continue her work. Mediation also allows for finality, whereas cases can drag on for years in court, she said.

She said she is not filling Glass’ spot, though she will work for the same company.

On the bench, Bluth was popular with lawyers.

She received a retention score of 88 percent in the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s 2025 Judicial Performance Evaluation, meaning a large majority of attorneys wanted her to stay on the bench. That was one of the highest scores for the District Court.

At sentencings, Bluth will often make a detailed statement, explaining her thinking as she sentences a defendant who has killed someone.

When she ordered life without parole for Samuel Howard, a 77-year-old she resentenced in a 1980 murder, she noted the trauma Howard had endured in his youth and his steps to reform in the decades since the killing.

But, she said, “I cannot take away the last sliver of justice that the (victim’s) family has.”

Bluth said she thinks a victim’s family and a defendant deserves to know the basis for her decision.

“These are decisions that are making a huge impact on people’s lives and they deserve to know what went on in the person’s head that made that decision,” she said.

Contact Noble Brigham at [email protected].