UPDATE
Aug 9, 2023 2:16 PM CDT
Former Las Vegas Raiders player Henry Ruggs was sentenced Wednesday to at least three years in a Nevada prison for killing a woman in a fiery crash while driving his sports car drunk at speeds up to 156mph. He pleaded guilty in May to felony DUI causing death and misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter, a charge carrying a six-month jail sentence that will be folded in with his three-to-10-year prison term, the AP reports. Ruggs, 24, was cut by the Raiders after the predawn crash on Nov. 2, 2021. The collision killed Tina Tintor and her dog, Max, and injured Ruggs' passenger, Kiara Je'nai Kilgo-Washington, his fiancee and mother of their daughter. "I have no excuses," Ruggs said, citing pain the case has caused his family, teammates, and Tintor's family. Ruggs said that after prison, he intends to counsel others "about the dangers of driving at unsafe speed and driving and drinking."
May 11, 2023 4:11 AM CDT
Ex-Las Vegas Raiders player Henry Ruggs pleaded guilty Wednesday to driving his sports car drunk at speeds up to 156mph on a city street before causing a fiery crash that killed a woman and her dog. "Guilty," said the former first-round NFL draft pick, 24, who will avoid trial and is expected to be sentenced Aug. 9 to three to 10 years in state prison under terms of his plea deal with prosecutors. The minimum three-year sentence cannot be reduced by converting the year-and-a-half that he has spent on house arrest to time already served.
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson cited possible legal obstacles to obtaining a conviction at trial and said he met several times with relatives of the woman who died, the AP reports. He said the plea agreement with Ruggs "accomplished our three most important goals." Ruggs was convicted of felony DUI causing death, will go to prison, and won't be able to appeal his conviction and sentence, Wolfson said in a lengthy written statement. "When someone dies as the result of a drunk driver's actions, 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 following his brief court appearance. He remains free pending sentencing.
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The Raiders dropped Ruggs while he was still hospitalized following the predawn Nov. 2, 2021, crash that killed 23-year-old Tina Tintor and her pet dog, Max. Tintor's mother, brother, uncle, and several other family members were in the courtroom Wednesday with their attorneys. In a statement issued after the hearing, the family thanked the district attorney's office for its work and said they look forward to putting the case behind them. Wolfson said shortly after the crash that Ruggs would face a mandatory minimum of two years in prison if convicted and could get more than 50 years.
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