Henry Ruggs faces up to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty in a fatal DUI crash | nfl

Former Las Vegas Raiders player Henry Ruggs pleaded guilty Wednesday to driving his sports car drunk at speeds of up to 156 mph on a city street before causing a fiery crash that killed a woman and her dog.

“Guilty,” the former first-rounder said. nfl The 24-year-old draft pick who will avoid trial and is expected to be sentenced Aug. 9 to between three and 10 years in state prison under the terms of his plea deal with prosecutors. The three-year minimum sentence cannot be reduced by converting the year and a half he has spent in house arrest to time already served.

Ruggs and his attorneys, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, declined to immediately comment and left court with a group of about nine people after the brief court appearance.

The Raiders dropped Ruggs while he was still hospitalized from the early morning of November 2, 2021, in an accident that killed 23-year-old Tina Tintor.

Tintor’s mother, brother and several family members were in the courtroom on Wednesday but left with their lawyer, Farhan Naqvi, without comment.

Ruggs’ girlfriend, Je’nai Kilgo-Washington, was with him in the Corvette and was also injured. Prosecutors said Ruggs suffered a leg injury and Kilgo-Washington received an arm injury. Kilgo-Washington and Ruggs have a daughter together, and Kilgo-Washington did not cooperate with prosecutors as a victim in the case.

Last week, Ruggs waived a long-delayed preliminary hearing on his agreement to plead guilty to driving under the influence causing death, a felony and misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter that carries a six-month jail sentence that it will be combined with his prison sentence of three to ten years.

Prosecutor Eric Bauman told the local judge who transferred the case to state court last week that Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson backed the deal. Wolfson declined to comment immediately after Ruggs’ plea.

Wolfson said shortly after the accident that Ruggs would face a mandatory minimum of two years in prison if convicted and could receive more than 50 years. The district attorney said investigators learned that Ruggs spent several hours drinking with friends at a golf and sports entertainment venue, and that he may have been at a friend’s house for several more hours before he and Kilgo -Washington headed home.

Last week, Ruggs’ lawyers called the plea agreement a “first step toward a fair resolution of this matter” and “closure for all parties involved.”

Since the crash, Ruggs’ lawyers have lost several bids to contest the evidence, including that Ruggs had a blood alcohol level of 0.16%, twice the legal limit in Nevada, after the rear-end collision that started a fire that killed Tintor, 23 years old. and his pet dog, Max.

Police reported airbag computer records showed Ruggs’ 2020 Chevrolet Corvette slowed slightly from 156 mph (251 kph) to 127 mph (204 kph) seconds before crashing into Tintor’s Toyota Rav 4. The speed limit in the area was 45 mph (72 kph). ).

Other charges against Ruggs were dismissed under the plea deal, including felony reckless driving, driving under the influence causing substantial injury to Kilgo-Washington, and a misdemeanor weapons charge stemming from police discovery of a loaded weapon. in his demolished Corvette.

Ruggs posted $150,000 bail to be released from jail after being released from the hospital and has remained under house arrest with strict conditions including electronic monitoring and alcohol checks. A judge’s order allowed him to attend a gym for three hours of physical training twice a week.

Ruggs’ full name is Henry James Ruggs III. He grew up in Montgomery, Alabama, and won an NCAA championship with the Crimson Tide before the Raiders drafted him in 2020. He signed a four-year rookie contract reportedly worth more than $16 million and had risen like a star. NFL player before the accident. Records show that he purchased a $1.1 million home in April 2021 not far from the scene of the accident.