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Friday, March 24, 2000
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Drug test positive for driver in teen deaths
A woman faces felony charges after tests show marijuana was in her blood when she crashed.
CORRECTION ON 03/25/00 -- Because of incorrect information provided by the Clark County district attorney's office, a story in Friday's Review-Journal contained errors about when blood tests were performed on Jessica Williams. The blood draws occurred at 2:50 p.m., 3:22 p.m. and 3:53 p.m. Sunday, a little more than an hour after an accident that led to the deaths of six teen-agers picking up trash on Interstate 15.
By Joe Schoenmann
Review-Journal
Prosecutors decided Thursday to pursue six felony charges against the motorist who blood tests show had marijuana in her system when six teen-agers were struck and killed picking up highway trash.
If Jessica Williams is convicted of the charges, she could spend the rest of her life in prison.
Bruce Nelson, Clark County deputy district attorney in the Vehicular Crimes Unit, said Thursday that three separate tests performed by Associated Pathologists Laboratories found 5.5, 5.1 and 4.8 nanograms of marijuana per milliliter of Williams' blood. The first test was taken nearly 10 hours after the Sunday accident, and the others were taken shortly thereafter.
State law dictates that at least 2 nanograms of marijuana must be found in a milliliter of blood in order for someone to be charged with driving under the influence of a controlled substance.
"She came out positive for marijuana and marijuana metabolites, in excess of the substance statutes, so we will be charging her with driving under the influence of a controlled substance," Nelson said.
Williams will also be charged with driving with a prohibitive substance in her blood, which carries the same potential prison sentence as driving under the influence. If Williams is convicted and sentenced to prison, she would be penalized for one or the other set of charges, but not both, Nelson said.
"That means she could be facing a minimum of 12 years and a maximum of 120 years in prison," he said.
Williams, of Littlefield, Ariz., turned 21 today.
Williams' attorney, John Watkins, has vowed to fight the driving under the influence charge. He has said Williams fell asleep and that the state driving under the influence law concerning drugs is unconstitutional because there is no scientific proof that a blood level of marijuana causes impairment. He was unavailable for further comment Thursday.
Nevada Highway Patrol troopers on Sunday arrested Williams after she drove into and killed six teens picking up trash along Interstate 15.
After her arrest, Williams said she had smoked marijuana about two hours before the accident, the Highway Patrol reported. Troopers found a pipe and what is believed to be marijuana in her minivan.
Williams was jailed on six counts of driving under the influence of a controlled substance, six counts of felony reckless driving and a couple of drug charges. In case the blood levels of marijuana came back lower than state law requires, prosecutors were prepared to charge her with six counts of involuntary manslaughter.
"She killed six people and she needs to go to prison," Gary Booker, chief deputy district attorney, said earlier this week.
On Wednesday, Justice of the Peace Tony Abbatangelo set Williams' bail at $5 million. Her next court date will be Wednesday. Booker plans to present the case to a grand jury April 11.
Williams' arrest stems from an accident that occurred shortly before 2 p.m. Sunday. She was driving south on I-15 while some 23 teen-agers, all in bright orange vests, were picking up trash along the highway near the Las Vegas Motor Speedway exit. The teens were in a county juvenile detention program that lets them work off fines and pay restitution for misdemeanor crimes such as breaking curfew and petty larceny.
For the past eight years the county has used the teens, who work at a rate of $5 an hour, to pick up highway trash. Silver State Disposal Service Inc., which uses that stretch of 75 mph highway to haul garbage to the Apex landfill, funds part of the program with donations of about $3,850 a month. County officials said the crews pick up all trash, including that which flies off Silver State trucks.
With the van that carried them parked alongside the road and flashing its hazard lights, the teens walked southward picking up the trash. About half of them were on the highway median when Williams hit them from behind. Five of them were pronounced dead at the scene; a sixth died the next day at University Medical Center.
Killed were Jennifer Booth, 16; Scott Garner Jr., 14; Alberto Puig, 16; Rebeccah Glicken, 15; Maleyna Stoltzfus, 15; and Anthony Smith, 14.
After the accident, Clark County put the program on hold until it could be reviewed by a task force. Other Nevada counties canceled similar highway trash pickup programs altogether.
The charges against Williams will test a Nevada law enacted in 1999 that specifies blood levels of a drug needed in order for someone to be considered under the influence of a controlled substance.
An argument against that law, which has succeeded in some courts, is that there is no scientific proof connecting blood levels of a drug to impairment.
Nelson said tests on Williams were done on three separate blood draws. The first was done at 12:13 a.m. Monday. The second was 15 minutes later, and the third was 20 minutes after that.
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Jessica Williams, shown in court Wednesday, faces six felony charges in connection with the deaths of six teens along I-15.
Photo by Jim Laurie.
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