NFL star Henry Ruggs pleaded guilty Wednesday to two charges stemming from a fiery DUI resulting in death and one count of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter in 2021.
He will avoid trial but he will officially be sentenced on August 9 to 3-10 years behind bars later this year after a judge formally accepted his plea deal on Wednesday morning, May 10.
This is coming after the American football star pleaded guilty to driving his sports car drunk at speeds up to 156 mph on a city street before causing a fiery crash that killed a woman and her dog.
Ruggs was convicted of felony DUI causing death, will go to prison, and won’t be able to appeal his conviction and sentence, the elected district attorney, a Democrat, said in a lengthy written statement.
‘When someone dies as the result of a drunk driver’s actions, this is the most serious charge the law allows.’
Ruggs declined to comment as he and a group of about nine people left the courthouse following his brief court appearance. He remains free pending sentencing.
ESPN reported that until Ruggs begins his sentence, he will stay under house arrest with location monitoring devices.
The Raiders dropped Ruggs while he was still hospitalized following the predawn November 2, 2021, crash that killed 23-year-old Tina Tintor and her pet dog, Max.
Tintor’s mother, brother, uncle and several other family members were in the courtroom Wednesday with their attorneys, Paul Albright and Farhan Naqvi.
In a statement issued after the hearing, the family thanked the district attorney’s office for its work and said they look forward to putting the case behind them.
The minimum three-year sentence cannot be reduced using the year-and-a-half that Ruggs has spent on house arrest.
Ruggs faced up to 50 years in prison — minimum of two — had he been convicted at trial.
