A week after a judge set the sixth preliminary hearing date for Henry Ruggs III, the former Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver returned to Las Vegas Regional Justice Center on Monday, when his case took another turn toward a higher court.

Last week, Harmony Letizia scheduled Ruggs’ preliminary hearing for May 4, when the court will decide if enough evidence exists for the state to proceed with its prosecution of the former Alabama standout. But which judge will make that ruling was the subject of a defense motion on Monday.

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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.

Letizia is the fourth judge to make a decision in Ruggs’ case.

When 2023 started, Judge Joe Bonaventure was assigned to take over the DUI specialty court that was handling Ruggs’ case. Judge Ann E. Zimmerman had presided over the case throughout 2022 in the DUI court, and she moved to keep it under her control by having it reassigned to her courtroom as she took on her new duties for 2023.

But 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.

In a Feb. 10 ruling, Schwartz ordered Ruggs’ case to return to DUI specialty court.

That made Bonaventure the judge shepherding the proceedings. Bonaventure had been the first judge to make a ruling regarding Ruggs, when he 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.

The case was then transferred to Letizia’s court.

On Monday, Ruggs’ attorneys asked Letizia to rescind Bonaventure’s disqualification order, which could send the case back to the DUI speciality court, or require Bonaventure to provide a detailed record of the basis for his recusal.

The Clark County District Attorney’s Office did not object, according to the court record, but Letizia denied the motion without prejudice for lack of jurisdiction because her court is not superior to Bonaventure’s.

Ruggs’ attorney, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, told The Associated Press that they will return to the Eighth Judicial District Court to get an answer on which judge will preside at Ruggs’ preliminary hearing.

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.

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.