Suspect in Vegas Strip crash is distraught, attorney says
Lakeisha Nicole Holloway entered district court with one of her public defenders, Scott Coffee, for her arraignment today in Las Vegas. Holloway, who crashed her car into pedestrians on the Las Vegas Strip on Sunday, has been charged with murder, child abuse and hit-and-run. (AP Photo/Chase Stevens)
LAS VEGAS »A woman accused of intentionally plowing a car carrying her child through crowds of pedestrians on a Las Vegas Strip sidewalk is distraught and overwhelmed, her defense attorney said after she briefly appeared in court for the first time.
Lakeisha Nicole Holloway, 24, pursed her lips and blinked Wednesday as she was led in shackles into a courtroom. She was not asked to enter a plea, but she nodded to acknowledge that she would remain in jail through the holidays while both sides investigate Sunday’s crash that killed an Arizona woman and injured dozens of others.
“This is sad and tragic for everybody involved,” defense lawyer Joseph Abood said after the hearing, adding, “Just because she’s charged, doesn’t mean she’s guilty.”
A coroner later ruled the death of Jessica Valenzuela, 32, of Buckeye, Arizona, a homicide. The finding means it wasn’t an accident but doesn’t find fault. Valenzuela died from multiple blunt-force injuries, Clark County Coroner John Fudenberg said.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys called the ruling expected. Abood said it didn’t reveal new details about the case.
“It says this victim died as a result of her injuries,” Abood said. “It doesn’t answer the surrounding questions. We still don’t have enough information to know how or why this happened.”
Prosecutors aim to show Holloway meant to kill and injure people when she drove her car onto the sidewalk in front of the Planet Hollywood and Paris Las Vegas resorts, District Attorney Steve Wolfson said.
Casino and street surveillance video of the crash is “superb” quality, Wolfson said, adding that he believes it clearly shows Holloway’s intentions. The video may not be made public until a later court hearing.
Holloway is charged with murder, felony hit-and-run and child endangerment. Additional charges are likely, depending on the results of drug and alcohol tests and police findings, Wolfson said. They could include multiple counts of attempted murder with a deadly weapon.
“If you intentionally try and run somebody over, that certainly qualifies as an attempted murder charge, and that’s one we are strongly considering,” he said.
Police and firefighters say hospitals treated at least 35 people from several states, Mexico and Canada. Six people remained hospitalized Wednesday, including two in critical condition.
A judge set a Jan. 20 date to schedule a preliminary hearing of evidence that police say they’re still collecting. Holloway plans to plead not guilty when the time comes, Abood said.
The deputy public defender, who represented another driver in a similar crash on the Strip in September 2005, said the defense team needs to see police reports, witness accounts and video before deciding on Holloway’s defense.
Holloway is on suicide watch in jail, where she is being held without bail. Her lawyers said Holloway’s mental health could become an issue, but that she had not had a psychological evaluation.
Abood said he and co-counsel Scott Coffee had heard nothing but good things about Holloway’s past.
“This is a surprise to everyone,” Abood said. “We have a lot of investigating and a lot of work to do.”
Holloway was from Portland, Oregon, and had been in Las Vegas for about a week, authorities said.
She told police after she was arrested that she was broke, homeless and tired of being shooed away from casino parking garages, where she and her daughter had been sleeping in a 1996 Oldsmobile. The girl wasn’t hurt in the crash, and child welfare officials are caring for her.
In Oregon, where she changed her name in October to Paris Paradise Morton, Holloway won honors for overcoming a rough childhood and homelessness to graduate with acclaim from an alternative high school.
The U.S. Forest Service hired her in 2009 to do administrative work in its Portland office. Holloway took a four-month break in late 2010 and resigned in 2012, spokesman Glen Sachet said.
The nonprofit Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center, which helps at-risk youths with education and job training, featured Holloway in a 2012 video in which she said she was going to college and entering the workforce.
“Today I’m not the same scared girl I used to be,” Holloway said in the video. “I’m a mature young woman.”
32 responses to “Suspect in Vegas Strip crash is distraught, attorney says”
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Will BO send his DOJ’s Loretta Lynch to LV to see if Lakeisha’s Civil Rights were violated?
More misinformation being spread by ignorant, brain dead Trump supporters who know nothing about the real world. Too bad statistics prove you wrong.
Racist comment by Obama hater Morimoto. With his family name, he should be careful and look up what happened in the 1940s. As far as Lakeisha, if this was done in Honolulu, she’d be out “pending investigation” and given probation for this “accident”.
What “statistics” are you talking about? Black crime is the highest among ALL ethnic groups in the US. So, looks like a crime here to me. Barry’s been known to shoot his mouth off lately, what’s he going to say now. If anything at all, being that its a black person doing the killing. I’d say in this case black lives DON’T matter.
I’m talking about the criminal justice system and how it treats blacks once they’re in it. Yes blacks commit the most crime per capita, I’m not arguing against that. However they are treated more harshly than whites for similar crimes by the criminal justice system once caught in it. Do your own research if you don’t believe me.
The two words of brain dead, and Trump are redundant.
Everyone deserves to have a fair trial in America.
Does the Staradvertiser still offer an RSS feed to yahoo?
I love the little Christmas tree in the heading on the homepage.
How many forms of public assistance is Lakeisha currently collecting?
We should all expect kid gloves treatment for this rather obvious Obama voter.
Who really cares. I expect the book to be thrown at her. Statistics show being poor and black are two strikes against you in the criminal justice system.
She’s not as distraught as the people she ran over.
Watching her enter the courtroom on TV news last night, she sure didn’t seem distraught. She seemed to appear in a good mood with a slight grin on her face.
Jail is the better alternative for the feral human. Private bed, three meals, etc. But why couldn’t she have just robbed a bank?
Mentally ill people do not become distraught. They have no concept of what is going on with themselves. Unlike this lady who is fit and sane, and has the ability to make choices. Guilty,I say.
Sure doesn’t look distraught to me. Put the perp away.
“…is distraught and overwhelmed, ..”>>> Too GD bad! And another thing – take her off the suicide watch. This could become a self solving situation without all the taxpayer sponsored court proceedings that will end with the same finality.
She got what she wanted, a place to sleep and 3 meals per day.
And a babysitter for the kid.
Islandsun, by her actions she also provided a place to sleep and daily meals for her daughter in Child Welfare.
Hope she sends us taxpayers a Christmas card.
I just hope a jury doesn’t buy any possible “mental illness” defense.
Choosing a jury is the most difficult part of a court proceedings. Have to cull out the preconditioned of a bias person.
Lost cause in the city of Lost Wages
Not lost wages if you are a shareholder of Sin City stocks.
obviously there is something mentaly wrong with this woman, however, that does not mean she should not be charged with homocide. she did this on purpose, she killed another and if she gets off because she was “distraught’ then our legal system is even more screwed up than I think it already is. He photo looks more like she’s got a bad attitude than distraught though.
I will agree with you 100% on this. I’m tired of the “mental illness” defense. Everyone needs to be held accountable for their own actions.
Distraught and ugly – its sad that some people have the “double whammy”.
Every resident in Hawaii is distraught by the lack of leadership to move us forward.
Let’s just wait for the investigation to be completed. Seems like Vegas is a magnet for people who are down and out and/or trying to start over. I have a friend who does outreach to people in crisis in downtown and North Las Vegas. His job is tough but he is a man of strong faith so his work is as much a testament to his faith as a job for which he is trained. Tells me all the time about people who come to town with no money and little hope. Many end up in jail, get beaten up and leave town, or die. This lady seems like one of these people, a down and outer. I personally cannot think of anything that would justify what she did, but maybe we are just missing something. I guess we just wait and see.
HawaiiCheese, maybe she just gave up.
Not against the law to be distraught, as long as you are not behind the wheel of a vehicle.