More Top Picks Chi Professional 13101
player ready...Former Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Henry Ruggs III was sentenced Wednesday to between 3 and 10 years in prison for a deadly 2021 drunk driving crash.
Ruggs was arrested after rear-ending a Toyota RAV4 while driving his Chevrolet Corvette Stingray more than 155 miles per hour in Las Vegas on the morning of Nov. 2, 2021, killing 23-year-old driver Tina Tintor and her dog in a fiery crash that sent her car 571 feet down the road.
His blood alcohol content was 0.16, double the legal limit. He suffered a leg injury in the crash. His fiancée and mother of their daughter, Je’nai Kilgo-Washington, was riding in the passenger seat and suffered a broken arm that required surgery.
The Raiders cut Ruggs the day after the crash.
After he posted $150,000 bail, Ruggs remained under house arrest for 18 months with location and alcohol monitoring. He was treated for a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder at a mental health facility in California in May 2022.
The former first-round pick was charged with felony counts of DUI and reckless driving, and one count of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter. He faced up to 50 years in prison, but in May 2023 he accepted a plea deal and pleaded guilty to DUI resulting in death.
“I sincerely apologize,” the now-24-year-old Ruggs said during the hearing on Wednesday, according to KVVU-TV. “I have no excuse. To the parents and family of Ms. Tintor, I sincerely apologize for the pain and suffering.”
Tintor’s family made a statement during the hearing as well.
“We pray that Henry Ruggs is blessed with the opportunity to be able watch his beautiful daughter grow into the amazing woman she can be,” Mirjana Komazec, her mother, said in a statement read by cousin David Strbac. “We pray that this terrible accident inspires positive change in the world. We pray that we all take away the importance of looking out for one another, remembering everyone we meet is another human’s loved one.”
The plea avoided a trial that Clark County district attorney Steve Wolfson previously said may not have led to a conviction because Ruggs was not administered a field sobriety test and proper protocol wasn’t followed to obtain blood at the hospital.
“The sentence isn’t going to bring Tina back,” Farhan Naqvi, an attorney who represented the victim’s family, said outside the courtroom. “What we’re hoping for, more than anything, is that other deaths can be prevented from driving under the influence and reckless driving. It ruins lives. It destroys families.”
With News Wire Services