East las vegas raiders Receiver Henry Ruggs III unconditionally waived his right to a preliminary hearing on Tuesday and will plead guilty to one count of DUI in a 2021 case that resulted in a car accident in which he was accused of killing a woman.
According to a plea agreement presented Tuesday in a Las Vegas Justice Court, Ruggs will serve three to 10 years in a Nevada state prison. The case now goes to the 8th Judicial District Court for a hearing on May 10, when he is expected to formally plead guilty.
Ruggs attended the hearing on Tuesday and when asked if he understood the proceedings, replied, “Yes, Your Honor.”
The charges dropped as part of the plea deal were one count of DUI causing substantial harm to his passenger and two counts of reckless driving.
In a statement released after Tuesday’s proceedings, Rugg’s attorney David Z. Chesnoff and Richard A. “This is the first step toward a fair resolution of this matter, and we look forward to closure from all parties involved,” Schonfeld said.
Eric Baumann, the chief deputy district attorney, declined to comment until next week’s plea hearing.
Police say Ruggs, who is 24 years old, was intoxicated and reached speeds of 156 mph in the Las Vegas Valley west of The Strip in the early morning hours of Nov. 2, 2021, when his Corvette Stingray Tina Tintor’s Toyota RAV4 was hit. 571 feet and set it on fire. Tintor, 23, and his dog, Max, died of burns, a coroner ruled in December 2021.
According to officials, Ruggs refused to take a field sobriety test, and blood drawn about two hours after the accident showed that his blood alcohol level was 0.161 – more than twice the legal limit in Nevada. His girlfriend, Kiara Jenai Kilgoe-Washington, was in the car and was also injured.
He was released on $150,000 bond the day after the accident and has been under house arrest with alcohol and location electronic monitoring devices for the past year and a half.
The Raiders quickly released Ruggs, a 2020 first-round draft pick from Alabama, following the accident.
Last year, Ruggs was allowed out of the house twice a week to work three hours a day at a training center in the Las Vegas Valley. Around the same time, the court allowed him to leave for California for a month for unspecified medical treatment.
The preliminary hearing was rescheduled six times, the latest delay coming in March over which justice of the peace should take over the hearing.
If convicted, Ruggs faced a minimum of two years and up to 50 years in prison.
