The fatal DUI case involving Henry Ruggs III has moved to a fourth judge, who has set the sixth date for the former Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver’s preliminary hearing.

On May 4, Las Vegas Justice Court Judge Harmony Letizia is scheduled decide if enough evidence exists to proceed with the state’s prosecution of Ruggs. Letizia capped a month of court action by setting the date on Monday, when Ruggs appeared before her for a status check.

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The State of Nevada contends the former Alabama standout was at fault in a fatal crash that occurred in Las Vegas at 3:39 a.m. Nov. 2, 2021. That’s when a Corvette driven by Ruggs struck a Toyota RAV4 driven by Tina Tintor, a 23-year-old Las Vegas resident. Tintor and her dog were killed in the crash.

Ruggs has been charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and/or controlled or prohibited substance resulting in death, driving under the influence of alcohol and/or controlled or prohibited substance resulting in death or substantial bodily harm, two counts of reckless driving resulting in death or substantial bodily harm and possession of a gun under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

The original date of the preliminary hearing had been Dec. 16, 2021, and it had been rescheduled to March 10, May 19 and Sept. 7 in 2022 and Feb. 1 in 2023.

The most recent date was scrubbed off the court calendar due to the objections of Ruggs’ attorneys in January. David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld objected to an action by Judge Ann E. Zimmerman, who presided over the case during 2022.

With the start of the new year, Judge Joe Bonaventure was assigned to take over the DUI specialty court over which Zimmerman had presided. But Zimmerman moved to keep the Ruggs case under her control. The court record shows the case was reassigned from the Justice Court’s Department 8, where Zimmerman works, to Department 9 and Bonaventure on Jan. 1. Two days later, the court record shows the case was reassigned to Department 8, with the notation “Per Judge Zimmerman, this case is to stay with Justice Court Department 8.”

Ruggs’ attorneys charged Zimmerman singled out their client by moving his case when the administrative structure of the court called for Bonaventure to preside over it. They asked Judge Jennifer Schwartz of the Eighth Judicial District Court to order it reassigned to Bonaventure’s court.

On Jan. 26, Schwartz stayed the proceedings while she considered a writ of mandamus filed by Ruggs’ attorneys. Mandamus allows a court to order a lower court to carry out a specific duty in the appropriate manner.

Originally, Schwartz said the Clark County District Attorney’s Office could present its case defending Zimmerman’s action at a hearing on Feb. 24, with Ruggs’ representatives scheduled to reply on March 10 followed by a hearing on March 22, when she could rule on the petition.

But Schwartz issued her ruling on Feb. 10, erasing those dates from the court calendar. Ruggs’ case should be handled by the Las Vegas Justice Court’s DUI specialty court, Schwartz ruled.

That returned Bonaventure as the judge shepherding the proceedings. He had been the first judge to make a ruling regarding Ruggs, when Bonaventure presided over the wide receiver’s first court appearance after his arrest, set his bail and dictated the terms for his release from jail.

But on Feb. 21, Bonaventure recused himself from the case. Bonaventure said he should not preside over the case because of comments he had made about it while running for re-election, KTNV-TV in Las Vegas reported.

The case was then transferred to Letizia in Department 3 of the Las Vegas Justice Court.

Law-enforcement authorities say Ruggs’ Corvette was traveling at 156 mph 2.5 seconds before impact and 127 mph at the time of a collision. The LVMPD used data from the car’s airbag control module to find those speeds.

The Clark County Office of the Coroner determined Tintor died from “thermal injuries due to a motor-vehicle collision.”

The Coroner’s Office also determined that significant conditions contributing to Tintor’s death “were inhalation of products of combustion, fractures of the nasal bones, right-sided ribs and left forearm, and a left hemothorax.” (A hemothorax is a collection of blood in the space between the chest wall and the lung.)

The Las Vegas police department reported tests on Ruggs at University Medical Center of Southern Nevada within two hours of the accident showed he had a blood-alcohol level of 0.161 percent. The legal limit in Nevada is 0.08 percent.

After his bail was set at $150,000 on Nov. 3, 2021, Ruggs was released into an electronic-monitoring program. The use of SCRAM technology also is a condition of Ruggs’ bail. SCRAM stands for secure continuous remote alcohol monitoring.

The Raiders released Ruggs on the same day that the wreck occurred. Ruggs was in his second season with Las Vegas, which acquired him with the 12th selection in the 2020 NFL Draft after he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.27 seconds at the NFL Scouting Combine, the fastest time at that year’s event.

A prep star at Lee High School in Montgomery, Ruggs caught 40 passes for 746 yards and seven touchdowns in 2019 for Alabama and had 98 receptions for 1,716 yards and 24 touchdowns in three seasons with the Crimson Tide.

In 20 NFL games, Ruggs had 50 receptions for 921 yards and four touchdowns, 12 rushing attempts for 65 yards and 11 kickoff returns for 211 yards.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.