Global Courant 2023-05-11 00:02:19
LAS VEGAS — Ex-Las Vegas Raiders player Henry Ruggs pleaded guilty Wednesday to drunk driving his sports car at speeds of up to 155 mph down a city street before causing a fiery crash that killed a woman and her dog.
“Guilty,” said the former first-round NFL designer, 24, who will avoid trial and is expected to be sentenced on August 9 to three to 10 years in prison under his plea deal with prosecutors. The minimum sentence of three years cannot be reduced by converting the one and a half years he spent on house arrest into time already served.
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson cited potential legal hurdles to obtaining a conviction at trial, said he had met with relatives of the deceased woman on several occasions, and said the plea deal with Ruggs was “our three main goals.” has achieved”.
Ruggs was convicted of a felony with DUI that resulted in death, will go to prison and will not be able to appeal his conviction and sentence, the district attorney-elect, a Democrat, said in a lengthy written statement. “If someone dies as a result of the actions of a drunk driver, this is the most serious charge the law allows.”
Ruggs declined to comment as he and a group of about nine people left the courthouse after his brief appearance in court. He remains at large pending sentencing.
“Henry entered his plea today in hopes it will help the process of healing the wounds caused by the accident,” his attorneys, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, said in written comments. They promised a “more complete” statement after sentencing.
The Raiders dropped Ruggs while he was still hospitalized following the predawn November 2, 2021, crash that killed 23-year-old Tina Tintor.
Tintor’s mother, brother, uncle and several other family members were in court on Wednesday but left with their lawyers, Paul Albright and Farhan Naqvi, without comment.
Tintor, 23, was a Serbian immigrant who graduated from a Las Vegas high school, worked at a Target store, wanted to become a computer programmer and was about to receive her U.S. citizenship, friends and relatives said after her death.
“The family values privacy at this time of mourning,” Naqvi later said in a written statement.
Ruggs’ girlfriend, Je’nai Kilgo-Washington, was in the Corvette with him and was also injured. Prosecutors said Ruggs suffered a leg injury and Kilgo-Washington suffered an arm injury. Kilgo-Washington and Ruggs have a daughter together, and Kilgo-Washington, as a victim in the case, did not cooperate with prosecutors.
Last week, Ruggs waived a long-delayed preliminary hearing in his agreement to plead guilty to driving under the influence, causing death, a misdemeanor and a vehicular manslaughter charge, which carries a six-month prison term that will be folded with his prison sentence of three to ten years.
Wolfson said shortly after the crash that if convicted, Ruggs would face a mandatory prison sentence of at least two years and could receive more than 50 years. The prosecutor said investigators learned that Ruggs had spent several hours drinking with friends at a sports entertainment ground and golf venue, and may have spent several more hours at a friend’s house before he and Kilgo-Washington headed home.
Since the crash, Ruggs’ lawyers have lost several attempts to challenge evidence, including that Ruggs had a blood alcohol content of 0.16% — twice the legal limit in Nevada — after the rear-end accident that caused a fire that killed Tintor and her pet died. dog max.
Wolfson said in his deposition that Ruggs may have escaped conviction at trial because Ruggs failed a field sobriety test after the crash and his lawyers argued that Ruggs’ blood alcohol test was improperly obtained at the hospital.
“There was virtually no other evidence to prove Ruggs was intoxicated,” Wolfson says of the blood test.
“I recognize that this outcome is not sufficient to punish Ruggs for the loss suffered by the Tintor family,” the prosecutor admitted. “But there was a legitimate concern that a court would have suppressed the results of the blood draw. We would have lost the drunk driving charge. We couldn’t take that chance.”
Police reported that computer data from the airbag showed Ruggs’ 2020 Chevrolet Corvette slowed slightly from 156 mph (251 km/h) to 127 mph (204 km/h) seconds before crashing into Tintor’s Toyota Rav 4. The speed limit in the area was 45 mph (72 km/h). ).
Other charges against Ruggs were dismissed under the plea deal, including reckless driving, drunk driving that significantly injured Kilgo-Washington, and a misdemeanor charge stemming from the police’s discovery of a loaded handgun in his wrecked Corvette. Ruggs agreed to forfeit the gun.
Ruggs has posted $150,000 bail to be released from prison after he leaves the hospital, and is under house arrest under strict conditions, including electronic monitoring and alcohol checks. An order from a judge allowed him to do three hours of physical training twice a week at a gym.
Ruggs’ full name is Henry James Ruggs III. He grew up in Montgomery, Alabama, and won an NCAA Championship with the Crimson Tide before being drafted by the Raiders in 2020. He signed a four-year rookie contract reportedly worth more than $16 million and was emerging as a star. NFL player before the crash. Records show he bought a $1.1 million home in April 2021 not far from the crash site.
