DA ponders retrial in 2000 crash that killed 6 teens
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson has not ruled out a retrial of Jessica Williams in a two-decades-old crash that killed six teens.
On Monday, Wolfson said he wants to see first whether the Nevada attorney general’s office decides to appeal the recent ruling of Senior U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson, who vacated Williams’ convictions.
“That decision is still under review,” Wolfson said. “The attorney general’s office is the office which represents the state of Nevada during this appellate process. They are the ones to determine whether or not to appeal the federal district court judge’s decision.”
The attorney general’s office declined to comment.
Williams was driving a van that swept into an Interstate 15 median north of Las Vegas in 2000, striking the six youths as they picked up trash for a Clark County work program.
Killed were Scott Garner Jr., 14; Anthony T. Smith, 14; Jennifer Booth, 16; Alberto Puig, 16; Rebeccah Glicken, 15; and Maleyna Stoltzfus, 15.
Williams was convicted of driving with a prohibited substance, marijuana, in her blood and was sentenced to 18 to 48 years in prison. She was paroled in October after serving about 19 years.
In a June 18 ruling, Dawson vacated Williams’ convictions, saying she was denied due process because the law as written at the time of the crash “did not give fair warning that the presence of an inactive ingredient of marijuana, marijuana metabolite, in her bloodstream” would have made her conduct illegal.
Dawson gave the district attorney’s office 30 days to decide whether to retry Williams and 120 days to put her on trial if prosecutors decide to move forward.
Williams, who was 40 as of March, expressed remorse for the crash during a recent interview and said she simply fell asleep at the wheel.
Pariente Law Firm, which represents Williams, declined to comment Monday.
“Our response will be determined once the Attorney General and the District Attorney decide how they wish to proceed,” the firm said in a statement.
Wolfson declined to say whether he felt it was possible to prosecute Williams again given the passage of time in the case.
Contact Glenn Puit by email at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.
