EXOTIC DANCER PLEADS GUILTY TO DRIVING ON DRUGS IN FATAL CRASH

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- A former exotic dancer pleaded guilty Thursday to
driving under the influence of drugs when her car jumped the curb and
plowed into a row of pedestrians on the Las Vegas Strip last year.

Juanita Kim McDonald, 25, accepted a plea bargain and faces five to 20
years in prison when she is sentenced July 26, Clark County District
Court spokesman Michael Sommermeyer said.

Mike Wienkes, 36, of Mineral Point, Wis., died after spending 18 days in
a coma after the April 19, 2000, crash in front of the Aladdin
hotel-casino. Five other people were injured.

McDonald pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of a controlled
substance and driving under the influence of a prohibited substance,
both felonies, Sommermeyer said.

She remains at Clark County jail pending sentencing before Clark County
District Judge Mark Gibbons.

Prosecutor Gary Booker said drug tests showed McDonald had marijuana,
methamphetamine and the hallucinogen-amphetamine Ecstasy in her system
when her car careened onto the sidewalk.

McDonald was represented by defense lawyer Stanley A. Walton.

Her plea avoids a high-profile trial similar to the one that led to the
February conviction of former Las Vegas stripper Jessica Williams.

Williams, 22, was sentenced in March to up to 48 years in state prison
after a jury found her guilty of six counts of felony driving with a
prohibited substance in her blood, a subsection of the state driving
under the influence law.

Six teen-agers on a county youth offenders work crew were killed when
Williams' van plowed through them as they picked up trash along
Interstate 15.