Henry Ruggs will spend between three and 10 years in prison for killing a woman and her dog while driving drunk in 2021, as the former Raiders wide receiver officially accepted a plea deal Wednesday.
Ruggs told a judge last week that he would admit to driving drunk at speeds of up to 156 mph in the crash, which led to a ferocious and ultimately fatal crash that killed 23-year-old Tina Tintor.
He would have faced a mandatory minimum of two years in prison, and possibly more than 50, if convicted at trial, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said shortly after the crash.
Ruggs waived a long-delayed preliminary hearing last week.
The three-year minimum sentence Ruggs has accepted cannot be reduced by converting the year and a half he has spent in house arrest to time already served.
Former Las Vegas Raiders player Henry Ruggs appears in court on Wednesday, May 10, 2023, in Las Vegas
Tina Tintor, 23, ‘died from thermal injuries due to a motor vehicle collision’ in November 2021
Ruggs’ lawyers lost several bids to contest evidence following the November 2021 crash
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.
Last week, the 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 percent, double the legal limit in Nevada, after the rear-end collision that caused a fire. who killed Tintor and his pet. dog, max.
Police reported airbag computer records showed Ruggs’ 2020 Chevrolet Corvette decelerated slightly from 156 mph to 127 mph seconds before crashing into Tintor’s Toyota Rav 4.
The speed limit in the area was 45 mph.
Tintor’s mother, brother and several family members were in the courtroom on Wednesday but left with their lawyer, Farhan Naqvi, without comment.
Ruggs (left) and his girlfriend, Kiara Je’nai Kilgo-Washington (right), were injured in the crash.
A Chevrolet Corvette owned by then-Raiders wide receiver Ruggs III is shown on a flatbed truck after a fatal crash on South Rainbow Boulevard on November 2, 2021
Wolfson said investigators have 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 his girlfriend Je’ nai Kilgo-Washington headed home.
Kilgo-Washington underwent surgery on an arm injury after the accident.
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 was released by the Raiders shortly after the November 2, 2021 crash.
