LAS VEGAS—A woman accused of intentionally plowing a car into a crowd of pedestrians on a Las Vegas Strip sidewalk had marijuana in her system, but prosecutors said that it’s unlikely she will be charged with driving under the influence.
Tests showed that Lakeisha Nicole Holloway, 24, had more than the Nevada legal limit of pot and its metabolic byproducts in her blood when she was arrested shortly after the Dec. 20 crash, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said on Wednesday.
However, he and prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo said the test results do not change the initial charges of murder, child endangerment and felony hit-and-run against Holloway.
“The amount of marijuana and marijuana metabolite does not appear to be enough to affect her mental state at the time of the crime,” DiGiacomo said. “She intentionally drove into the crowd.”
The 3.5 nanograms per milliliter of marijuana in Holloway’s blood were above the 2-nanogram limit in Nevada. The 23.6 nanograms per milliliter of marijuana metabolites in her system were above the 5-nanogram state limit.
Holloway’s court-appointed defense attorneys, Joseph Abood and Scott Coffee, said the amounts don’t prove that her driving was affected.
“If those levels are true, they are extremely low and they don’t indicate that she was impaired in any way,” Abood said.
Coffee noted that the results undercut the findings of a police drug-recognition expert who examined Holloway after her arrest and reported that she appeared to be under the influence of a stimulant.
“It’s good to see the concerns about ... some kind of stimulant weren’t borne out,” Coffee said.
While the level of metabolite in Holloway’s system was above state limits, it was below a limit of 50 nanograms per milliliter set by the federal Department of Transportation for pilots, overland truckers and other interstate drivers, Coffee said.
Holloway is jailed on suicide watch pending a Jan. 20 court date.
