Las Vegas man sent to jail for hate crime attack on elderly neighbor

A judge ordered a 90-day jail sentence Monday for a man who admitted to committing a hate crime attack against his elderly Filipino-American neighbor.

Christian Lentz, who was 44 when the crime occurred, pleaded guilty but mentally ill on April 21 to residential burglary motivated by bias or hatred toward the victim and abuse of an older person with death or substantial harm motivated by bias or hatred.

Along with the jail term, District Judge Jennifer Schwartz ordered Lentz to serve five years probation. He could face a 12- to 30-year prison sentence if he fails to obey conditions.

“To steal a line from another organization, there is no place for hate here in Nevada, specifically in Clark County,” said Schwartz. “And there is no way that anyone can erase the pain or the suffering that Mr. Quindara or his family suffered.”

Schwartz noted that the defendant has been out of custody for two years, undergone therapy and stayed out of trouble.

Amadeo Quindara, then 75, was relaxing in his garage on May 30, 2023, when Lentz approached and “told him that he should be on a ventilator,” then returned, attacked Quindara and said, “Die, die, die,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Colleen Baharav previously said.

“You were almost successful in killing me,” Quindara previously said to Lentz. “You wanted to kill me.”

The victim’s wife found him on the floor covered in blood, according to Baharav. Quindara suffered a head laceration, a black eye, and memory loss, she said, and still feels pain.

Lentz told Quindara and his wife to speak English after hearing the couple speaking with Filipino neighbors in Tagalog the day before the attack, Quindara previously said in an interview.

Phillip Quindara, the victim’s son, praised the sentence Schwartz ordered.

“Today marks a long overdue moment for accountability,” he told reporters. “After 797 days, more than two years since Christian Lentz brutally and cowardly attacked my father, Amadeo Quindara, justice has taken its course.”

He said it was satisfying to watch Lentz get handcuffed to be taken into custody. That image helped the family to move on, he said.

Amadeo Quindara did not comment.

Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said, “This was a difficult case for many reasons. I’m so happy the family got some relief and some justice.”

Defense attorney Mandy McKellar expressed disappointment in a statement.

“Instead of receiving sustained psychiatric care, Mr. Lentz—a man who has clearly been ill—is now in jail,” she said. “It’s a deeply unfortunate outcome and reflects a broader failure in how this country handles mental health issues. We should all be doing better as a community.”

McKellar previously said Lentz takes full responsibility, but was “acutely psychotic” at the time of the assault and cannot remember committing it.

Lentz was to be sentenced in July, but was delayed due to an issue with documentation for restitution.

The judge ordered Lentz to pay an agreed-upon amount of $7,000. Prosecutors previously asked for more than $83,000.

Prosecutors had wanted a sentence of four to ten years. McKellar requested probation with a mental health court component.

“You took away my dreams,” Quindara said to Lentz at a July hearing. “You took away my freedom. You took away the things that I earned in my life, because you didn’t like the way I look.”

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.