Williams saga far from over

Jessica Williams may have been convicted, but the book that began on March 19 with the deaths of six teenagers did not conclude on Friday.

Between appeals, a proposed bill, a civil lawsuit and the quest for additional arrests, many more chapters about the tragedy remain unwritten.

Williams, 21, was convicted Friday of six counts of driving under the influence of a prohibited substance.

A jury of seven men and five women found that Williams had more than 2 nanograms of marijuana's active ingredient in her blood on the day her van drifted off Interstate 15 and struck and killed six children picking up trash.

However, the jury found Williams was not guilty of driving under the influence of a controlled substance -- meaning they did not believe the marijuana or the Ecstasy in her system impaired her ability to drive.

Williams' attorney, John Watkins, viewed the verdicts as a victory. He argued that someone cannot be guilty of "being under the influence" if they are not impaired.

There is no scientific evidence that 2 nanograms of THC impairs driving abilities, Watkins argued.

Watkins said he plans to appeal in the hopes the Nevada Supreme Court will throw out the controlled substance law, which went into effect October 1999.

Williams, who had just started a job as an exotic dancer, is the first Clark County resident to be tried under the statute. The second Clark County resident to be tried under the law will be Juanita Kim McDonald, 25.

McDonald, also an exotic dancer, is accused of striking and killing a tourist as he walked along the Strip exactly a month after the Williams incident. At least two others were crippled in the incident.

Prosecutors say McDonald had three drugs in her system -- Ecstasy, marijuana and methamphetamine. Her trial is scheduled for April 2 before District Judge Mark Gibbons, the same judge who oversaw the Williams case.

Should the law be struck down, Williams will walk out of prison. Because the jurors acquitted her on reckless driving and involuntary manslaughter charges, prosecutors cannot try her again.

Clark County District Attorney Stewart Bell believes the law will be upheld.

If they wanted to, legislators could pass zero-tolerance laws on both drugs and alcohol, Bell said. If they chose to, they could declare any amount of a drug or alcohol in the blood illegal, he said.

Deputy District Attorney Bruce Nelson said that similar statutes already have been upheld in six states.

Watkins has other issues he hopes will overturn Williams' conviction. The first he hopes to address is Gibbons' decision not to allow him to discuss Clark County's alleged liability during the trial.

Watkins maintains that Clark County is responsible for the teens' deaths, because they were picking up trash as punishment for committing petty crimes.

Passers-by testified there were no road signs, flagmen or cones warning them that pedestrians were working in the median and on the shoulder of the interstate.

Had jurors known about Clark County's role in the accident, Watkins believes the verdict would have been different.

Watkins also hopes to have Williams' conviction overturned, because prosecutors took no steps to have Williams' blood refrigerated after it was tested. Had it been stored properly, Watkins believes his experts may have been able to show Williams' blood had lower THC levels.

The lack of refrigeration led to a destruction of evidence, Watkins said.

Prosecutors contend there are no industry standards about the preservation of blood evidence. Moreover, they say, Watkins would have to prove they purposely didn't preserve the blood.

More importantly, the prosectors point out that Watkins decided to test the blood long after his own experts said accurate readings could not be obtained from refrigerated blood.

Watkins knew the tests would be unfavorable if he tested the blood right away, so he waited 11 months to test it in the hopes the THC levels would drop, which they did, the prosecutors said.

Watkins asked Gibbons last week to either throw out the state's blood tests or dismiss the case because of the refrigeration issue, but Gibbons declined to do so. Watkins intends to revisit the issue this week by refiling his motions, but most consider his efforts a formality.

The issue will more than likely be decided by the state Supreme Court.

Williams faces two to 20 years for each of the six victims when she is sentenced March 30.

Gibbons has the option of ordering all or parts of the sentences to be served at the same time or consecutively. Between now and then an investigation into Williams' background -- both family and criminal -- will be conducted by the Clark County Parole and Probation Department, and a recommendation will be made.

Should Williams receive the maximum sentence of 120 years, she would be eligible for parole after 48.

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