Former Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Henry Ruggs III will plead guilty to DUI resulting in death and misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter after a crash that killed a 23-year-old woman.
Ruggs will serve three to 10 years in Nevada state prison after confirming at a preliminary hearing on Tuesday that he will plead guilty. He will formally plead guilty when he appears in court on 10 May. As part of the plea deal, one count of DUI causing substantial harm and two counts of reckless driving will be dropped.
“This is the first step toward a fair resolution to this matter and we look forward to closure for all the parties involved,” attorneys for Ruggs said in a statement on Tuesday.
According to police, Ruggs was driving at more than 150 mph with a blood-alcohol content twice Nevada’s legal limit before his sports car slammed into the rear of a Toyota RAV4 in the early hours of 2 November 2021. Tina Tintor and her dog burned to death inside the Toyota. Ruggs and his girlfriend, who was a passenger in his car, sustained non-life threatening injuries.
“[R]esponding officers located the Toyota on fire. Fire department personnel responded and located a deceased victim inside the Toyota,” the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement at the time. “The preliminary investigation indicates the front of the Chevrolet collided with the rear of the Toyota.”
Ruggs has been under house arrest since the crash after he posted a $150,000 bond. The 24-year-old, a first-round pick in the 2020 NFL draft, was released by the Raiders in the days following the crash. He faced up to 50 years in jail if he had been found guilty at a jury trial.
