Las Vegas coroner says woman killed in crash with ex-Raider burned to death
A Clark County, Nev., coroner said the woman killed in the fiery crash involved with ex-Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Henry Ruggs III was burned to death, The Associated Press reported.
In a statement through the county’s spokesperson on Tuesday, Clark County Coroner Melanie Rouse said that 23-year-old Tina Tintor died from “thermal injuries” sustained in the incident last month.
“Other significant conditions contributing to her death were inhalation of products of combustion, fractures of the nasal bones, right sided ribs … left forearm and (chest),” Rouse’s statement said. “The manner of her death was accidental.”
Ruggs III, 22, is accused of causing the predawn crash by driving drunk at speeds up to 156 mph with his girlfriend, Kiara Je’nai Kilgo-Washington, in the passenger seat of his Corvette sports car.
Ruggs’s vehicle then slammed into the rear of Tintor’s Toyota Rav4 on a residential street where the speed limit is 45 mph.
Ruggs, who was released by the Raiders after the incident, remains on house arrest after posting a $150,000 bail, the AP noted.
Ruggs’ attorneys, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, who have questioned whether their client caused Tintor’s death, declined to comment on the coroner’s findings, according to The AP.
The attorneys told the judge in a court document last month that an unidentified witness told them firefighters were slow to respond to the incident as Tintor’s vehicle was consumed in flames.
Other witnesses told authorities they tried to rescue Tintor and her dog as they heard screams from the vehicle but were unable to do so due to the heat.
In a statement last month, Clark County spokesman Erik Pappa denied that there were any “delays in response or in the attack on the fire,” adding that the fire captain on the scene reported the vehicle was fully in flames when firefighters arrived, the AP reported.
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