The Clark County (Nevada) district attorney said his office accepted a plea arrangement with former Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Henry Ruggs III because it was concerned the central piece of evidence in its case might be suppressed.

On Wednesday in 8th Judicial District Court in Las Vegas, Ruggs entered guilty pleas to charges of driving under the influence of alcohol and/or controlled or prohibited substance resulting in death and misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter.

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Ruggs was involved in a traffic crash on Nov. 2, 2021, in Las Vegas that “caused the senseless and untimely death” of 23-year-old Tina Tintor and her dog. Authorities said Ruggs was driving more than three times the speed limit and had a blood-alcohol content twice the legal limit at the time of the wreck.

The former Alabama standout had 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.

If convicted of all charges, Ruggs could have been sentenced to more than 50 years in prison.

Under the terms of the deal, in exchange for his guilty plea to two charges, Ruggs will be sentenced on Aug. 9 to from three to 10 years of incarceration by the Nevada Department of Corrections.

“I recognize this outcome is not sufficient to punish Ruggs for the loss the Tintor family has suffered,” Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said in a statement issued by his office, “but there was a legitimate concern that a court would have suppressed the result of the blood draw. We would have lost the felony DUI charge. We couldn’t take that chance. This resolution sends Ruggs to prison for up to 10 years on a felony DUI conviction and brings closure to the Tintor family.”

Without the DUI resulting in death charge, which has a sentencing range of two to 20 years, Wolfson said, the most significant charge against Ruggs would have been felony reckless driving, which carries a prison sentence of one to six years. Unlike DUI resulting in death, felony reckless driving convictions allow prisoners to be paroled, too, according to the release.

The statement said a field sobriety test couldn’t be administered to Ruggs because he was transported from the accident scene to University Medical Center of Southern Nevada. Law-enforcement officers sought a search warrant by telephone while at the scene so blood could be drawn from Ruggs at the hospital for an alcohol-content test.

Wolfson said the test revealed Ruggs’ blood-alcohol content to be 0.16 percent. The legal limit for drivers in Nevada is 0.08 percent.

In May 2022, Ruggs’ attorneys filed a motion to suppress results of evidentiary blood-sample testing, arguing there was insufficient probable cause for Judge Harmony Letizia to approve the warrant that allowed the blood draw.

“This presented a potential legal impediment to the prosecution,” the statement from the District Attorney’s Office read. “If the result of the blood draw was suppressed, there was virtually no other evidence to prove Ruggs was under the influence. Had the suppression motion been granted – and there was a strong likelihood because no (field sobriety tests) were performed and there was not information given to the judge that Ruggs had bloodshot/watery eyes, smelled of alcohol or had been drinking prior to the crash – the DUI death charge would have been dismissed.”

The statement from the District Attorney’s Office does not include that Judge Ann Zimmerman ruled on July 12 that the results of the blood-alcohol test could be used as evidence.

However, on March 14, Ruggs’ attorneys renewed their motion to suppress results of evidentiary blood-sample testing, saying they didn’t have access to a 47-page investigative report released by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department at the time of their initial filing to suppress. They contended the report indicated Letizia was not given all the information needed to determine if the blood draw was warranted.

That motion to suppress had not been ruled on, according to the court record.

Wolfson stood by the plea arrangement.

“This outcome accomplished our three most important goals,” Wolfson said in the statement. “One, convict Henry Ruggs of the strictest charge allowed by Nevada law for drunk driving. Two, send Henry Ruggs to prison. And, three, eliminate his ability to appeal his conviction and prison sentence.”

Wolfson said the victim’s family had been kept up-to-date throughout the process.

“Tina’s family members are the most important people in this process,” Wolfson said, “and I met with them several times before reaching this resolution.”

RELATED: VICTIM’S FAMILY REACTS TO HENRY RUGGS III’S GUILTY PLEA

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 deadly accident occurred in Las Vegas at 3:39 a.m. Nov. 2, 2021, when a Corvette driven by Ruggs struck a Toyota RAV4 driven by Tintor.

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

After his bail was set at $150,000 on Nov. 3, 2021, Ruggs was released into an electronic-monitoring program.

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