JESSICA WILLIAMS CASE: FATHER FEARS FOR DAUGHTER

Says She Would Not Willfully Harm Anyone

When Jessica Williams was about 5, her father heard her crying inconsolably
outside the family home.

He rushed outside to comfort her, and when the sobs subsided he asked what
was wrong.

"She had been laying on the sidewalk, watching a stink bug, and her older
brother stepped on it. Broke her heart," Steve Williams recalled during an
interview Thursday.

This same girl, now 21 and on trial in District Court for a March accident
that killed six teen-agers, would never knowingly harm a living soul, her
father contends.

Many in the community already find her a sympathetic figure, as evidenced
by the dozens of letters she has received from strangers.

"It's done wonders for her morale," Steve Williams said.

Sandy Heverly, who as executive director of Stop DUI has worked closely
with the victims' families, said the case has polarized public opinion to a
degree not seen since the March 1987 accident in which a vehicle driven by
Corina King killed two people, including 11-year-old Richard Rundle.

Heverly said Jessica Williams deserves no sympathy.

"She was a 20-year-old woman who made a decision to use illegal drugs and
endanger the lives of everybody who was on the roadway with her," Heverly said.

Six teen-agers died in March when a white Ford van driven by Jessica
Williams veered into the median of Interstate 15 at the precise spot where
a youth offenders work crew had been assigned to pick up trash.

Killed in the accident were Anthony Smith, 14, Scott Garner Jr., 14,
Alberto Puig, 16, Maleyna Stoltzfus, 15, Rebeccah Glicken, 15, and Jennifer
Booth, 16.

News accounts soon memorialized the victims, and the anguish of their
families has been apparent at nearly every court proceeding.

Throughout the trial that continues this week, Jessica Williams typically
has maintained a stoic front, dressing in conservative pantsuit outfits and
staring forward without expression.

Steve Williams said profound emotions bubble beneath the placid surface of
his daughter, a vegetarian he said possesses a genius-level IQ.

Jessica Williams is haunted by the deaths of the six youths, though she
does not believe she is criminally responsible, her father said.

"I feel like I'm surrounded by the spirits of these dead children. They are
not angry with me, but I am heartbroken at their deaths," Steve Williams
said his daughter told him during a jail visit not long after the accident.

He said she also feels abused by local authorities who set her bail at $5
million and leveled charges that carry the possibility she could die in prison.

The most serious charges against Williams are six counts of felony driving
while under the influence, one for each victim. Each count carries a
maximum sentence of eight to 20 years.

"She's been ripped to shreds by the system down here that doesn't give a
damn about the truth of the matter," Steve Williams said. "We are
law-and-order people. We believe in taking responsibility for our actions.
But fair is fair, and they are not treating my daughter fair."

Prosecutors say there has been nothing extraordinary about the treatment of
Jessica Williams.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Gary Booker said it is possible that there
is no precedent for $5 million bail in a fatal accident. But he added the
accident itself is without precedent.

"How many other cases have we had with six dead children?" he asked.

The prosecutor cited three other fatal accidents in which bail was at least
$1 million, including one in which bail was set at $4 million for a drunken
driver who killed four people in May.

Also, Booker said it is not true that the prosecution of Jessica Williams
is intended to limit the liability of Clark County officials who ordered
the work crew to collect trash in the median of the interstate.

"That would be unethical. It would be immoral, and it would just go against
my grain," he said.

In a Thursday interview at a downtown eatery, Steve Williams grew
increasingly impassioned as he discussed the legal situation of his
daughter, whose father, a native of Canada, and mother, a native of Mexico,
divorced when she was about 4 years old.

The father said he is particularly incensed by a 1999 state law that makes
it a crime to drive with certain amounts of specific drugs in one's system.

Jessica Williams had more than twice the legal amount of marijuana in her
blood. But experts for the prosecution and the defense have testified the
limits are not intended to mark the point where a driver would be impaired.

If convicted of felony DUI, Jessica Williams could be sentenced to between
48 and 120 years in prison. "That is absolutely unconscionable," her father
said.

Heverly said she is troubled by such criticism of the 1999 law that
District Judge Mark Gibbons ruled was constitutional. She said an acquittal
in the Williams case would undermine the effort to rid the roads of drugged
drivers.

"It would be devastating if she is found not guilty of the DUI charge. We
would see far more people choosing to drive under the influence of
marijuana," Heverly said.

Prosecutors and the defense differ on whether Jessica Williams, who also
used Ecstasy 10 hours before the accident, was impaired when she fell
asleep and drifted off the road.

Her father maintains she was one of a large population of drivers who have
latent amounts of marijuana in their system.

"Yes, she used marijuana in a limited fashion, on occasion, just like most
people do -- and that's the damned truth," Steve Williams said. "If anybody
is responsible for that, it's me."

He said he used marijuana in the presence of his older children on rare
occasions, such as around a fire on a desert camping trip.

The father said he conveyed by words and example that the drug was to be
enjoyed only in moderation, if at all. He believes the results of blood
tests performed after the accident show his daughter heeded this advice.

Defense attorney John Watkins has told jurors the defense will not contest
charges of possession of a controlled substance and being under the
influence of a controlled substance. Both are felonies carrying maximum
four-year sentences.

The bitterness that marked Steve Williams' discussion of his daughter's
legal issues disappeared when he reminisced about her childhood.

The fifth of six children, she was rarely without a book in her hand as she
grew up in Utah, Arizona and California.

"She's never been in trouble," her father said. "She was a model child --
sweet, helpful, charming, loving, honest."

She earned good grades at a high school just north of San Diego, and upon
graduation her father paid for her to visit Europe.

She traveled to France, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Italy and Switzerland,
where one of her sisters resides.

She returned to this country one year later to attend the New York School
of Interior Design, where she intended to develop her creative bent.

Steve Williams said his daughter left school after one year with the
intention of traveling some more before resuming her education. "She found
New York pretty confusing," he said.

She visited a brother in Colorado, then went to her father's home in rural
Arizona, about 10 miles from Mesquite.

Her father said she sought work in Las Vegas because she needed money to
pay for repairs on her 1960 Volkswagen convertible. She began dancing at
Little Darlings, a Las Vegas strip club, less than one month before the
accident that her father said necessitated mental health counseling.

"To be driving a vehicle that kills six children is enough to kill anyone's
spirit, especially a gentle one like hers," he said.

Heverly said any sympathy engendered by the case is properly reserved for
the victims and their survivors, not a defendant unwilling to accept
responsibility for her actions.

"It all comes down to a matter of choice, and that is the choice that she
made," Heverly said.