A couple of detours away from the desk

Back in a courtroom…and tasked with another important errand

I made my first visit to a Las Vegas courtroom yesterday. I covered the sentencing hearing for Henry Ruggs III, a former Raiders wide receiver that killed a woman and her dog in 2021 because he was driving 156 MPH in his Corvette. While drunk.

I’ve been to a few sentencing hearings before, so I figured that I knew what to expect, but this one had much more of a “factory line” kind of feel, even though it involved a fairly high-profile client. We were packed into a smallish courtroom on the third floor of the Regional Justice Center in downtown Las Vegas. I arrived fairly early, only to realize that I had still cut it very close.

The gallery only had a few rows, with one section reserved for family members. The rest of us—clearly all journalists—were wedged into the back, left side of the room. I squeezed past one of our station’s reporters and grabbed a seat next to one of our photographers, who was poised to grab a live shot. I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect, but it was all over faster than I anticipated.