The case of Henry Ruggs III and a distraught household determined for solutions

Authorities say Ruggs tore by way of Las Vegas’ valley west of the Strip at 156 mph in his Corvette Stingray. The Clark County coroner ruled in December that Tintor and her canine burned to demise within the crash. “I have been concerned within the justice system for over 40 years as each a protection lawyer and a younger prosecutor,” Clark County district legal professional Steve Wolfson advised ESPN. “I’ve by no means been concerned in, or am I conscious of, one other felony case involving any person touring 156 miles an hour.”

Ruggs awaits a preliminary listening to — now set for Sept. 7 — to find out whether or not he’ll stand trial in state court docket. That listening to has been rescheduled 4 occasions — the newest postponement coming final month. If convicted, the 23-year-old former Alabama standout faces a minimal of two years and a most of 50 years in jail, Wolfson advised reporters in November.

One Las Vegas DUI protection lawyer not concerned within the case stated such delays are usually not uncommon, given the quantity of DUI circumstances within the metropolis and the sort of authorized maneuvering anticipated over proof and medical data.

Nonetheless, with every delay, a household wonders whether or not justice will ever be served.

“You possibly can’t even think about the ache,” Komazec stated of his niece’s demise. “You do not even know the way you are feeling anymore. You do not even have emotions.”

Joe Sullivan, a supervisor of sufferer companies for Moms In opposition to Drunk Driving, has sat in a courtroom with Tintor’s household throughout hearings over the previous a number of months and has advised them that the justice system can transfer slowly. Sullivan arrange a gathering in June between the household and Clark County assistant district legal professional Eric Bauman, and Sullivan known as the assembly productive.

Nonetheless, Komazec cannot sleep. He scours the web and finds tales of celebrities and privileged individuals who’ve dedicated crimes and completed little or no time in Las Vegas. The household worries that the longer it takes for the case to be resolved, the much less anybody will keep in mind Tintor.

They wish to know all the things that occurred the night time Tintor died. They wish to know the place Ruggs and his girlfriend, Kiara Je’nai Kilgo-Washington, had been earlier than the crash — what they have been doing, who they have been with, the place they have been going and why he made the alternatives he did.

However none of that may reply the existential questions. Why was a soccer participant with a multimillion-dollar contract in his automobile moderately than one of many quite a few rideshare choices? How might this occur when Ruggs’ life and profession had been outlined by a previous lethal crash?

ON THE HEADER of Ruggs’ Twitter web page, which has been silent since Oct. 31, is a photograph of a tombstone. It lists Roderic D. Scott’s date of beginning, the date of his demise and an epitaph for a younger man who by no means noticed his 18th birthday: “I’ll do one thing nice. I will likely be one thing nice.”

Ruggs had these phrases tattooed on his leg. He’d been mates with Scott since elementary college, after they met each morning to play basketball at a YMCA in Montgomery, Alabama. They grew to become greatest mates at Robert E. Lee Excessive College and dreamed of getting out of Montgomery and taking part in within the NBA.

In an in depth interview with ESPN’s School GameDay in 2019, Ruggs stated he would not be taking part in soccer if it weren’t for Scott.

Scott had a imaginative and prescient that his pal can be a five-star athlete, and that he’d play soccer at Alabama. Ruggs had barely picked up a soccer in his first two years of highschool, however Scott stored urging him to play. He’d seen how briskly Ruggs might run, and the way excessive he might bounce.

“He was at all times the one which was giving me confidence and simply boosting my head up,” Ruggs stated within the GameDay interview.

“I believe he simply noticed my potential.”

The soccer coaches at Robert E. Lee additionally stored pursuing Ruggs, and junior 12 months, he lastly relented. He acquired his first soccer scholarship provide after the second sport of the season.

Scott accepted a basketball scholarship to Jacksonville State, and their futures appeared set. Shortly after their basketball staff was eradicated from the postseason, Scott and Ruggs deliberate a visit to Birmingham to cheer for his or her mates within the state finals. Ruggs was purported to drive, however he caught the flu, so Scott rode with 4 different youngsters, together with his longtime pal Darian Adams.

It was raining the morning of March 3, 2016, as they headed north on Interstate 65. Adams stated the driving force was rushing and distracted on her cellphone. He had requested her to decelerate. He was sleeping within the again seat, unrestrained, when he awoke to the thump-thump of the tires using over rumble strips. However Adams by some means managed to go to sleep once more. Shortly after that, the automobile began hydroplaning, then left the street and overturned.

“Every thing was in gradual movement,” Adams stated. “I keep in mind me being on [the interior roof], and Rod was within the center. I keep in mind wanting down on him.”

The following time he awakened, Adams was mendacity in the midst of the street. He had damaged two bones in his neck. He requested the place Scott was, however no person on the scene, or the hospital, would inform him.

Ruggs was at house in mattress. His cellphone stored ringing, and Ruggs stored hitting ignore. When he lastly answered and heard the information, he needed to hurry to see Scott, however his brother, Kevontae’, had taken his truck to the hospital. So Ruggs ran roughly a mile to Baptist Medical Middle South to get to Scott.

When he discovered his pal was useless, Ruggs stated he “misplaced himself.” He stated he carried round guilt as a result of he did not drive him that day.

“I do not get sick,” he advised GameDay. “So why was I sick and why at the moment?

“I attempt to not put on it an excessive amount of on myself however … I do not even know the right way to really feel about it. Like, was it a superb factor for me that I wasn’t there or was it simply meant to be that method?”

(ESPN requested data for the accident report from the State of Alabama Legislation Enforcement Company, however the request was denied, citing Lagniappe v. Mack, a 2021 Alabama Supreme Court docket determination involving a neighborhood newspaper’s request for body-cam footage in a deadly police taking pictures. The state Supreme Court docket dominated that “investigative writings or recordings are privileged communications shielded from disclosure.”)

Eleven months after his pal’s demise, Ruggs introduced his school selection in a 1-minute, 50-second video that began with him crouched at Scott’s grave.

“I honor him day by day,” Ruggs says within the video. “Every thing I’m, all the things I’ve, I honor his reminiscence. As a result of he at all times advised me, ‘I’ll do one thing nice. I will likely be one thing nice.'”

On the finish of the video, Ruggs locations an Alabama cap on Scott’s grave.

“That is for you, Rod,” Ruggs says.

Adams went on to play school basketball at Troy, then transferred to Jacksonville State in 2020. He figured it was a strategy to honor Rod Scott, by carrying the uniform he could not. It has been six years for the reason that crash on I-65, and Adams nonetheless thinks about Scott day by day. He cannot shake the recollections.

He was preparing for a sport when he heard the information of the crash in Las Vegas. Adams stated he vacillated from being upset concerning the predicament Ruggs put himself in to feeling brokenhearted about Tintor to even sympathy for Ruggs. He stated he prays for each of them.

He stated he reached out to Ruggs however Ruggs by no means responded.

“The one factor I’d say about Henry is that soccer could have been his life,” Adams stated, “however his life is not over in my eyes.”

TINTOR WAS, BY 20-something requirements, a homebody. Her uncle stated a few of that got here out of necessity. Her father, Nedeljko Tintor, struggled with language limitations and did not have a driver’s license. She took him wherever he wanted to go, and he or she was supposed to choose him up from work the morning she died.

She favored doing issues for her household, be it babysitting Ayden, Komazec’s son, or spending a day along with her grandmother. Tintor fought to get into the world. She was born untimely, and endured bombings within the former Yugoslavia. Komazec’s household would ration meals to avoid wasting for child Tina.

In 2000, when she was a toddler, Tintor, her dad and mom and her brother, Djordje, got here to the US. Komazec’s household joined them a 12 months later, and so they all lived underneath one roof in Las Vegas for about 4 years. The cramped quarters, and the shared nervousness of forsaking all the things for one more nation, cast a deep bond throughout the household.

Tintor liked cooking and dyeing her hair and doting over her canine and cats. She graduated from Durango Excessive College in 2016, and labored on the Goal on Grand Canyon Drive. It was a placeholder job to pay the payments till she discovered who she needed to be. She would take advantage of mundane issues enjoyable — Tintor loved sifting by way of the chaos of the greenback aisle — and hang around with co-workers within the parking zone for hours after the shop closed. They’d commiserate over imply prospects and teenage angst.

She had plans. She needed to be a nurse, then modified her thoughts and centered on computer systems. She was actually good with computer systems, her pal Ryder Hankins stated. He stated she had hopes of finding out at UNLV.

“She was very tomboyish, and he or she was courageous,” Hankins stated. “She did not take s— from anybody. She did not let anybody discuss all the way down to her, particularly at Goal. If the visitor is mad, we simply receives a commission $12 an hour to sit down there and hear. She was by no means shy. She was at all times there to assist.

“She was somebody that I gained numerous braveness from, and I regarded as much as her in that sense. She knew who she was and in addition wasn’t afraid to be herself. And she or he was very blunt. She knew the right way to say one thing sincere with out hurting anybody.”

THE RAIDERS HELD a staff assembly on Monday, Nov. 1. They’d simply come off a comparatively uneventful bye week, however interim head coach Wealthy Bisaccia delivered a message as they entered an off day on Tuesday: Keep out of bother.

Out in Dallas, Cowboys security Damontae Kazee had been arrested on suspicion of DWI throughout his staff’s bye two weeks earlier, and that was entrance of thoughts for the Las Vegas employees. The Raiders had weathered Jon Gruden’s e-mail scandal, and his bitter departure, and have been 5-2 heading right into a Week 9 street sport in opposition to the New York Giants.

Ruggs, a second-year receiver who was lastly exhibiting the promise that earned him the 12th total draft choose and a $16.67 million assured contract, determined to exit that night time. He went to Topgolf, a preferred leisure venue that overlooks the Strip. His girlfriend posted a video on Fb of Ruggs taking swings from the bay whereas they loved the night with no less than one different, unidentified pal. She later advised police that they have been consuming mai tais and that she drank two however did not know what number of, if any, Ruggs had. Messages to Topgolf and the corporate’s nationwide workplace weren’t returned.

Kilgo-Washington narrated Ruggs as he swatted at golf balls. “You are underneath stress if you’re on digital camera,” she laughed.

Membership music thumped. Excessive Curler, town’s well-known 550-foot statement wheel, was in Ruggs’ sight line. Ruggs stated that there have been 14 minutes left of their session. After they left Topgolf, Ruggs and his girlfriend went to a pal’s home, in keeping with the police report.

Simply after 3:30 within the morning, Tintor’s RAV4 was headed north within the far proper lane of South Rainbow Boulevard. Kilgo-Washington advised police she was on the cellphone whereas Ruggs was driving his Corvette. She heard him yell, “What is that this man doing?” across the time he began braking. The automobile started to slip, veering from the center of the northbound lanes, south of Spring Valley Parkway, into the far proper lane and hit Tintor’s Toyota at 127 mph. The RAV4 was propelled 571 ft.

Michael Leone, who lives alongside South Rainbow Boulevard, was awake and feeding his 6-month-old son when he heard a growth. Leone went to his yard, the place he might see the road. In an interview with ESPN, he stated he noticed somebody nonetheless within the driver’s seat of a Corvette and remembered music blaring. Leone stated one other man — later decided to be a safety guard at a close-by condominium advanced — helped the driving force to the aspect of the street.

Leone stated he noticed a black SUV pull up behind the accident scene, after which seen a white automobile additionally parked not far-off. He estimated 10 folks have been strolling nearer to the crash, and he remembered an officer telling one of many males to again up, and the person replied, “Oh, we’re his mates, we all know them.”

The police report stated {that a} black Dior shoe was on the bottom and a handgun was on the floorboard.

A TMZ video exhibits the Corvette on the aspect of the street, partially on the sidewalk — hazard lights flashing and doorways ajar. Tintor’s RAV4 sits sideways within the middle lane, burning, as Ruggs curses. The hearth within the RAV4 pops so loudly that it apparently units off a automobile alarm. A person on the sidewalk — who seems wearing the identical clothes as their pal within the Fb video from Topgolf — factors out to an officer that the particular person sitting on the bottom is Ruggs, who performs for the Raiders, and that he wants assist “ASAP.”

A voice on the video, however off digital camera, tells police there may be somebody nonetheless within the automobile that is on hearth. Two males — the safety guard and a passerby — had tried to avoid wasting Tintor, in keeping with statements made to police, however she was pinned inside. Smoke and warmth from the hearth prompted each males to again away.

The TMZ video reveals Ruggs’ response to a catastrophe in actual time: He sits on the street and cries as Kilgo-Washington faces him, holding his head in her arms. She repeatedly pleads for assist and tells Ruggs to think about their toddler daughter.

“Consider Kenzli,” she says. “Consider Kenzli.”

Ruggs was taken to College Medical Middle, the place, in keeping with a police report, an officer seen Ruggs’ speech was slurred. Citing proof collected on the scene in addition to Ruggs’ situation and habits at UMC, police concluded he was drunk. Citing exams by hospital employees earlier than police arrived, the report stated Ruggs hadn’t suffered head trauma. Ruggs was booked into Clark County Detention Middle.

When Ruggs was on the hospital, he grew to become enraged, police stated. He tried to take the IVs out of his arm and the monitor from his finger.

“Get me the f— out of right here,” Ruggs screamed.

TINTOR WAS BURIED on a sun-splashed Thursday afternoon. Younger folks wearing black scattered filth right into a gap within the floor and made an indication of the cross. Considered one of Tintor’s mates posted on social media that it was the primary funeral she had ever attended.

Tintor’s household needed the companies to be personal, with no cameras, so a throng of reports media stood within the nook of a parking zone at St. Simeon Serbian Orthodox Church, the location of the funeral.

Nonetheless, a handful of strangers felt compelled to attend.

“I by no means knew Tina,” Las Vegas resident Bob Kendzior stated. “I did not know a factor about her till the occasions, and it caught with me all week. I am a canine particular person like she was; I’ve had rescue canine my entire life. And the tragedy is simply unspeakable. I did not know what to do. I needed to donate, I needed to ship condolences and ship flowers, however nothing appeared proper.

“After which I remembered once I misplaced family members, a very powerful factor to me was the individuals who simply confirmed up. So I made a decision to point out up. I am sorry if I wasn’t dressed appropriately, however I’ve by no means been to a Serbian occasion earlier than. However it was necessary to be right here.”

Raiders proprietor Mark Davis attended the funeral, and Komazec thought it was a pleasant gesture. However then he later learn within the Las Vegas Evaluation-Journal that Davis stated he would not abandon Ruggs despite the fact that he was lower from the staff.

“I used to be simply pondering he was any person who feels sorry and he will change one thing,” Komazec stated. “That he will say, ‘We’ve too many issues within the membership. I wish to change one thing. This isn’t acceptable, what is going on on.’ However after that I learn within the information, ‘Hey I will give him all of the help he wants.’ That is the factor — why would you be two[-faced]?”

However within the days after the accident, Tintor’s household did really feel the help of Las Vegas. Angela Pinzon, a mom of two, works on the Petco subsequent to the park the place Tintor walked her canine that final night time. Pinzon, who has 4 golden retrievers, discovered herself grieving a lady and a canine she had by no means met and needed to do one thing. Pinzon and Las Vegas canine coach Sabrina Smilor organized a “Pack Stroll” for Nov. 13, the Saturday after Tintor’s funeral. There was only one rule: Neither the canine nor their people might put on Raiders gear.

Pinzon stated it wasn’t meant as a knock in opposition to the Raiders. She simply needed the day to be about Tintor and Max. She hoped Tintor’s household would hear concerning the stroll and know that town of Las Vegas was fascinated with them. Know that they weren’t alone.

Within the crowd she noticed a bunch of individuals wearing black. Pinzon checked out their solemn faces and knew — it was Tintor’s household. She walked as much as Mirjana Komazec, Tintor’s mother, and hugged her.

A couple of weeks later, Pinzon was loading groceries into her automobile within the parking zone of La Bonita on South Rainbow Boulevard when a lady within the parking zone approached her. It was Mirjana.

They embraced once more. Mirjana, Pinzon stated, was carrying black. She advised Pinzon that she by no means would have imagined all these folks would present up that day for Tintor. She was crying.

She advised Pinzon that she hoped this by no means occurs to anybody else.

ON MARCH 16, the Clark County court docket granted Ruggs permission to depart house confinement twice every week to work out for 3 hours a day at a coaching middle within the Las Vegas Valley close to Pink Rock Canyon. The gymnasium touts itself as a premier sports activities facility, catering to pro-level athletes.

It is unclear whether or not Ruggs is definitely understanding or whether or not he has hopes of sometime resurrecting his soccer profession. Ruggs’ lawyer, David Chesnoff, stated his consumer won’t do interviews whereas the case is ongoing. Chesnoff would not touch upon a movement the protection made, and a decide granted, in late April requesting permission for Ruggs to go to California for one month — Might 2 to June 2 — for medical remedy. ESPN requested a replica of the protection’s movement, however the court docket sealed the doc outlining his medical wants.

Dozens of mates and ex-teammates have been contacted for this story, and quite a lot of them both did not reply or declined to remark. Ruggs’ agent, Jovan Barnes, who has made quite a few journeys to Las Vegas since Nov. 2 to be with Ruggs, stated that he want to discuss concerning the Henry Ruggs he is aware of however that he cannot remark.

Raiders gamers have had a number of brushes with the legislation involving driving in Las Vegas. In January, rookie cornerback Nate Hobbs pleaded guilty to a careless driving cost after a DUI cost was dropped. Prosecutors stated Hobbs’ blood alcohol stage was 0.01%, underneath the Nevada authorized restrict. Hobbs additionally confronted a separate reckless driving cost from earlier that month — he was going 110 mph in a 65 mph zone — for which he entered a no-contest plea and paid a $250 positive. Hobbs’ incident got here nearly a 12 months to the day after working again Josh Jacobs was arrested on suspicion of DUI in a single-car crash close to the airport. He was by no means charged as a result of his blood alcohol stage was beneath the authorized restrict.

Alex Otte, nationwide president of MADD, stated that the group reached out to the Raiders and provided help within the hope of avoiding a repeat of what occurred on South Rainbow Boulevard and that they’ve been in discussions about efforts to stop impaired driving.

A consultant from the NFLPA advised ESPN the usage of ride-sharing apps is promoted in annual staff conferences. In 2010, the union started providing a driver service; the on-demand portion of the service was discontinued in 2019 after Uber and Lyft grew to become standard. Gamers presently can safe a automobile service, with no less than an hour’s discover, by calling the 1-800 quantity on the again of their NFLPA membership card.

“We want to have the ability to practice gamers, employees, followers,” Otte stated. “We wish everybody who’s concerned with their group, with the NFL and with the general public normally, to grasp that that is by no means an choice. Consuming and driving ought to by no means be an choice for somebody.”

JUST A FEW hours after the NFL’s first-round draft picks stroll the pink carpet underneath the backdrop of the Bellagio Fountains in late April, Pedja Komazec quietly will get in his Volkswagen and makes the three:30 a.m. journey house from work. A couple of miles from his home, he stops his automobile and walks to the crash website.

Over the winter, he had commissioned an artist to color a mural close to the nook of Spring Valley and Rainbow, only a few ft from the place Tintor died. He stops on the mural each night time on his method house from work simply to ensure the flowers, candles and memorials are intact. It relaxes him when he is aware of all the things is OK.

In December, he arrived on the website and seen that somebody was stealing her Christmas lights. Komazec ran after the person. He requested the person why he did it, and the person stated he did not know. Komazec has come to the world late at night time for greater than half a 12 months now, when a memorial was throughout the road, when somebody wrote in chalk, “DEPORT THE RAIDERS.”

He walks a few blocks to the spot the place Ruggs slammed on his brakes. The police paint strains marking the automobiles’ actions are fading, however the scorch marks from Tintor’s RAV4 are nonetheless seen. Komazec thinks concerning the ultimate seconds of his niece’s life time and again. He’ll do one thing. He needs to fulfill with state legislators about toughening DUI legal guidelines. He stated he has a video name scheduled with no less than one state senator subsequent month. Komazec plans to be within the courtroom for each listening to.

“We’re by no means going to get her again,” he stated, “however no less than he can get what he deserves to get.”

It is nearly four a.m., across the time Tintor died on Nov. 2. Automobiles whiz by the intersection. The solar will likely be out quickly. Komazec, wearing his work garments — black pants, a white shirt and a tie — declines to be in any images of himself by the memorial. He needs all the eye to be on Tintor. He says Tintor’s mother ordered a large picture of her daughter shortly after her demise, and when the household hung it on the wall, their Siberian husky cried and barked for days.

The canine did not eat for 4 or 5 days straight, Komazec stated, as a result of it realized that Tintor wasn’t coming house.

Tintor’s mother just lately adopted one other golden retriever, he stated. It reminds her of Tina. There was little hesitation when deciding what to name him. They named him Max.