Henry Ruggs III’s Tragic Las Vegas DUI Case: Henry Ruggs III, a former receiver for the Las Vegas Raiders, was found guilty of causing the death of a Las Vegas woman as well as her dog in November 2021 through intoxicated driving and was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison on Wednesday, August 9th. After serving a sentence of three years in jail, Ruggs may be eligible for parole.
On Wednesday, the 9th of August, Judge Jennifer Schwartz of the Clark County District Court informed Ruggs that the case was one of the most tragic circumstances she had ever encountered.
Since Ruggs, 24, pleaded guilty in May to one count of DUI resulting in death and one count of misdemeanour vehicular manslaughter in connection with the accident that resulted in the deaths of Tina Tintor and her dog, Max, he has been placed under home arrest with electronic monitoring for alcohol and location. Prior to this, he had been subjected to these conditions. On Wednesday, Ruggs apologised for his actions in front of Tintor’s family by reading from a statement that he had written specifically for them.
According to what Ruggs said, “To the parents and family of Ms. Tintor, I would like to sincerely apologise for the pain and suffering.” Ruggs, who was standing between his attorneys and wearing a suit of a dark blue colour, approached Schwartz and told him that he had let down his “family, teammates, and those that believed in me with my actions.” Ruggs was addressing Schwartz.
He added that he has spent the past 21 months searching for solutions to justify his actions, but that he makes no excuses and desires to begin the healing process for himself as well as anyone else who was affected. Ruggs hopes that more people will become aware of how dangerous it is to drive when under the influence of alcohol and at fast speeds.
Henry Ruggs III’s Tragic Las Vegas DUI Case
Ruggs is quoted as having commented, “My actions are not a true reflection of me.” Since the month of May, Ruggs had been given a prison sentence in the state of Nevada that ranged from three to ten years. The Raiders made the decision to let Ruggs go the day following the tragic event.
On Wednesday, a member of Tintor’s immediate family broke their silence and addressed the public for the first time about the disaster. Tintor came to the United States when he was a toddler, bringing with him his war-weary family who had fled war-torn Serbia. She helped her father overcome his difficulties with the English language, she babysat for her nephew, and on the day that she passed away, she was supposed to pick up her father from work.
Since Ruggs’ first hearing two years ago, members of his family have never missed one of those proceedings. After Ruggs and defence attorney David Chesnoff had finished speaking, Tintor’s cousin, Daniel Strbac, took the stand and provided a statement on behalf of Tintor’s mother, Mirjana Komazec.
A portion of the message said, “We pray that this terrible accident inspires positive change in the world.” “From the bottom of our hearts, we absolutely love and appreciate all members of our church, Raider Nation, the city of Las Vegas community, and every individual who has shown up to remind us that we are not alone, and to remind Tina and Max that they are not alone.”
Even though Chief Deputy District Attorney Eric Bauman is responsible for thousands of cases, the Ruggs case has been publicly displayed on his desk for almost two years now. He said that he had been to the memorial for Tintor and that he had left tennis balls for Max.
“It was a horrific case,” Bauman stated about the situation. “The fact that she was not killed in the accident was the aspect of it that surprised me the most.” She had the ability to avoid the collision and continue on with her life as normal. However, she and her dog both perished in the fire, and she herself endured much pain. It gives me a headache. When I pass by the memorial, I always make sure to stop, and the experience of being there is something that stays with me forever.
A coroner’s report dated December 2021 states that Tintor, who was 23 years old, and Max both died from head injuries. The office of the Clark County District Attorney made a statement in May, close to the time of the plea deal, indicating that flaws with the search warrant obtained by police for Ruggs’ blood draw in the hospital may have resulted in the DUI death charge being dismissed if there hadn’t been a plea deal. This statement was issued around the time that Ruggs entered into the agreement to enter into the plea bargain.
At the beginning of this year, the office of the District Attorney for Clark County, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving all lobbied in favour of legislation that would increase the penalty for situations that are comparable to Ruggs’. The bills were both shot down by the state legislature.
Lindsey Valdez, who serves as the director of mission operations for MADD, was there in the courtroom on Wednesday to show her support for Tintor’s family.
Valdez noted that “today is a very heavy day,” and he was right. “I think it marks a point in the case where there is some resolve on the criminal side of the case,” the judge said. But unfortunately, that does not really mean that the healing process for the family or themselves has come to an end.
In the court documents that were filed prior to the sentence hearing, the attorneys for Ruggs asked the judge to limit their client’s time spent in jail to between three and ten years. Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld state that Ruggs “wishes that he could turn back time and change the outcome of the tragic events that occurred on November 2, 2021.” Ruggs is quoted as saying this.
The legal representation for Ruggs submitted a doctor’s evaluation of his life and health, background information, and a collection of letters of support from individuals who knew him personally. The Dr. Percy L. Julian High School (previously Robert E. Lee High School) in Montgomery, Alabama, where Ruggs rose to renown, was the source of several of the letters. These letters came from teachers and personnel at the school. Mike Locksley, who coached Ruggs during his time at Alabama as a student, also wrote a letter on his behalf. He has recently been promoted to the position of head coach at the University of Maryland.
On November 2, 2021, authorities say that Ruggs was driving under the influence and reached speeds of 156 miles per hour only seconds before colliding with Tintor’s Toyota RAV4, which was travelling at slightly more than 43 miles per hour. The distance travelled by Tintor’s RAV4 was 571 ft. According to the results of a blood draw conducted two hours after the event, Ruggs’ blood alcohol level was 0.161, which is more than twice the legal limit in the state of Nevada.
According to the authorities, Ruggs and three other people, including his girlfriend Kiara Je’nai Kilgo-Washington, were playing Topgolf in the area near the Strip in the hours before the tragedy. An itemised duplicate of a Topgolf receipt was found by the police, and it revealed that Kilgo-Washington had racked up a tab for meals, drinks, and game play at the establishment.
The group was allegedly responsible for the purchase of twenty cocktails, the majority of which included tequila, as stated by the authorities. According to the reports of the police, Ruggs and Kilgo-Washington had spent around three hours at the residence of a friend before the collision. According to the authorities, Ruggs was at a friend’s house where he was playing poker and also learning how to play pool.
Other than what he said in court, Ruggs has refrained from making any public statements regarding the issue. On the other hand, the authorities were able to get a transcript of a phone call that Ruggs made from prison the day following the event, during which he admitted to being drunk to a man who remained anonymous. During the course of the five-minute chat, he also mentioned that the last thing he could remember doing before the accident was learning how to play poker. “I don’t even remember leaving,” he said, as recorded in the police transcript.
As a result of a court judgement from the previous year, Ruggs was given permission to leave his house confinement two times every week. Around the same time, the court gave him permission to go to California to receive medical treatment of some kind that was not specified. According to records that were turned in by Ruggs’ legal team on August 1, it was revealed that Ruggs had in-patient trauma treatment at the Mental Health Collective in Newport Beach, California. As stated by the clinical director Kristen Zaleski, Ruggs participated in residential treatment for PTSD that lasted around the clock.
Kilgo-Washington was a passenger in the vehicle with Ruggs and also sustained injuries. She was found to have a broken arm, as stated in the police report. Ruggs was the first player the Raiders selected in the draught following their move to Las Vegas. He was chosen 12th overall in the year 2020 and played for the squad in a total of 20 contests.
