Emotions run high at start of Williams trial

Kim Smith

Saturday, Jan. 27, 2001 | 10:52 a.m.

Tracy D'Arensbourg-Ri'Chard remembers leaning out of the county van as it crept forward on the Interstate 15 median, urging stragglers to hurry up.

The next moment, six of 11 teenagers who D'Arensbourg-Ri'Chard was supervising lay dead or dying.

In the dust and confusion left in the wake of a speeding van that had careened off the interstate, other teenagers were running everywhere, checking on each other, offering comfort.

Amid the chaos sat the white van, a lone orange safety vest hanging from its front end. A few feet away, the driver, Jessica Williams, and her passenger, Tania Ozarek-Smith, sat alone, stunned, crying.

"I just heard the commotion, and then I saw a big dust, a big thing of dirt," D'Arensbourg-Ri'Chard later told grand jurors about the March 19 accident. "It just looked like a building blew up, there was so much dirt. Once the dirt cleared I was standing right there in front of all the children -- the children that were run down."

D'Arensbourg-Ri'Chard relayed the news to a 911 operator as a passing motorist -- a nurse's assistant -- checked for pulses.

"There's a pulse, and then no pulse, no pulse, no pulse ..." D'Arensbourg-Ri'Chard remembered the nurse's assistant saying.

D'Arensbourg-Ri'Chard was one of two Clark County employees on I-15 when the six teens -- members of a county highway cleanup crew -- were killed.

As the kids worked their way down the highway, D'Arensbourg-Ri'Chard and Davetta Mitchell would talk to them and move the county vans up periodically. Both were in charge of 11 kids.

The teens who were straggling that day, the ones D'Arensbourg-Ri'Chard had been urging to hurry up, were the ones who survived.

Mitchell's crew was on the other side of the highway, but close enough to watch the victims' orange safety vests go flying.

They will be among those testifying at Williams' trial in the coming weeks.

Did Williams simply fall asleep at the wheel on March 19? Or did the drugs in her system impair her ability to drive?

Williams' trial begins Monday with selection of a jury that will answer those questions.

Prosecutors intend to call more than 30 witnesses during the trial, which is expected to last at least two weeks. Many will testify they saw the accident that took the lives of Malena Stoltzfuss, 15; Jennifer Booth, 16; Rebeccah Glicken, 15; Scott Garner Jr., 14; Anthony Smith, 14; and Alberto Puig, 16.

Five were killed instantly; Booth died the next day. They were picking up trash along the interstate as part of their punishment (community service) for the minor offenses they had committed.

What prosecutors intend to prove is that on March 19, after performing at a topless club, Williams took Ecstasy, a hallucinogenic drug, with Ozarek-Smith, stayed up all night and then drove to the Valley of Fire State Park, 40 miles northeast of Las Vegas, where she smoked marijuana with her friend.

They believe that Williams, 21, who had been up between 24 and 36 hours, passed out at the wheel as she returned to Las Vegas with her cruise control set at 75 mph.

Metro accident reconstructionist Jon David is expected to testify that Williams drifted into the median near the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and her van traveled 219 feet before striking the first teen; she continued going until a hill caused her van to turn and slide across the lanes before it stopped, facing north.

Police and medical personnel will testify that Williams told them about the drugs that she had taken, and chemists will tell jurors about the effects of those drugs.

Many witnesses, some of whom came within inches of being hit, will tell jurors that a sobbing Williams told them she had fallen asleep.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Gary Booker said he intends a "straightforward case" that will present the facts as he knows them.

Defense attorney John Watkins said he plans to call six or seven witnesses, four of whom will testify that Williams was not impaired by the drugs.

Unlike many criminal defense cases, "we have absolutely nothing to hide," Watkins said.

He wanted to address what role he believes Clark County played in the teens' deaths. But several months ago District Judge Mark Gibbons ruled that issue will be addressed via a civil lawsuit filed by the teens' parents.

The teens were picking up trash as part of a Clark County contract with Republic Services of Nevada. The garbage-disposal company had problems with trash blowing out of its trucks on the way to the Apex landfill and needed someone to pick it up.

The county ran the program for more than 11 years without any problems. In June, Nevada's Occupational Safety and Health Enforcement Division cited the county for five safety violations and fined it $3,150 because of the accident.

It said Clark County's Risk Management and Safety Office failed to provide safety devices, protective equipment and training for those working at the accident scene.

The county opted to pay the fine, but officials insist they are not accepting responsibility for the accident. The cleanup program no longer exists.

The civil trial date has not been set.

Watkins says the county, not Williams, is responsible for the deaths.

"Mark my words, if things go bad for Jessica (at the trial), it (the verdict) will be reversed because you can't take the county's negligence away," Watkins said.

Watkins said Gibbons simply made the wrong decision about the county.

The attorney said he also will show jurors that Williams tried to avoid hitting the kids, but it was too late.

Although a plea agreement has never been discussed, Watkins said he would have considered a deal in which Williams would have pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and been eligible for probation.

"Sometimes people plead to a charge even though they didn't do it because they are facing such serious (penalties)," Watkins said.

As it is, Williams faces six counts each of driving under the influence of a controlled or prohibited substance, reckless driving and involuntary manslaughter. She also faces one count each of possession of a controlled substance and being under the influence of a controlled substance.

If convicted, Williams could be sentenced to as much as 120 years in prison.

Watkins admits that because of the case's emotional aspects, it will be difficult to select a jury that can look at the case objectively.

However, Watkins believes justice will be served -- whether it's at the trial or through the appellate process.

"God is going to protect this little girl," Watkins said. "God bless the souls of those children who died, but the county shouldn't have had them out there, and Jessica shouldn't be blamed for what happened."