Almost 10 years after crash on Las Vegas Strip, suspect still awaits trial

LAS VEGAS — It’s been years since Timothy Ambacher has thought frequently about the crash that claimed one life and injured dozens of people on the Strip nearly 10 years ago.

Ambacher, one of the people prosecutors have said Lakeisha Holloway tried to kill that evening in December 2015, was then a sophomore at Delaware Valley University who had traveled to Las Vegas with his team for a wrestling competition.

He dreamed about the crash for the first few years after it happened and had nightmares that would wake him up and keep him from falling asleep for the rest of the night.

“It was pretty devastating at the time,” he said in a recent interview.

But he eventually moved on, he said, and assumed Holloway had gone to trial and been found guilty.

That’s not actually the case.

Holloway, now 34, still awaits her trial, which is currently set for September 2026. Since her arrest, she has gone through multiple competency evaluations at state psychiatric facilities.

She recently gave a jailhouse interview to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and said she’s frustrated with the delay in going to trial, which she attributed to going through multiple attorneys and the time she spent in mental health facilities.

She also said she thinks constantly about the crash.

“I wish I could rewind the hands of time,” said Holloway, who has changed her name to Paris Morton. “I wish no one had to feel this pain.”

But the crash remains a major part of her life.

“I live it every day,” she said.

On Dec. 20, 2015, Holloway was in crisis. She had been in Las Vegas for about a week, living in her car with her 3-year-old daughter, police said previously. She told detectives that security guards kicked her out at every place she tried to stop and rest.

Authorities alleged she headed north on Las Vegas Boulevard in an Oldsmobile sedan, which she drove onto the sidewalk in front of Planet Hollywood and continued driving down the sidewalk until veering off near what is now Horseshoe Las Vegas.

Jessica Valenzuela, 32, died. The Review-Journal previously reported that she had been trapped under the car for at least 200 yards. Thirty-five people, three of whom had critical head injuries, were hurt.

A 2015 Metropolitan Police Department arrest report said Holloway “would not explain why she drove onto the sidewalk but remembered a body bouncing off of her windshield, breaking it.”

Ambacher said that the night of the crash, his coaches were taking him and other teammates to see a movie. They were staying at the Flamingo and were hit shortly after walking out of the hotel. He recalled hearing screaming and seeing the car right before it made impact.

He was tossed over the vehicle and landed in the street.

“It took me a while to kind of come to my senses to realize what happened,” he said.

In the aftermath, Ambacher said, he and his teammates helped the people around them. They checked on people to make sure they were OK, wrapped them in blankets that an ambulance brought and helped gather belongings, like shoes and bags, he said.

Ambacher was taken to a hospital, along with coaches and other teammates, he said. He had glass in his hands and knees, hit his head and hurt his back. Because he was a college athlete, he said, he was in great shape and recovered quickly.

Holloway declined to answer some questions about the crash in her recent interview, but said it was not intentional. She said she had used marijuana days before the crash. Authorities previously accused her of being above the legal limit for marijuana, although court records show that she does not face a DUI charge.

The delay in Holloway’s case is unusual.

Yoni Barrios, the man behind a 2022 Strip stabbing spree that killed two and injured six, has also suffered from mental problems and was ordered to undergo competency treatment.

Even though his crimes happened nearly 7 years after the crash in which Holloway is accused, his case has already been resolved.

A judge sentenced him to life in prison without parole Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to charges that included counts of terrorism, murder and attempted murder.

Defense attorney Monti Levy, who began representing Holloway in January, attributed delays mainly to her client’s competency issues, though she said the COVID-19 pandemic also played a role.

The Clark County district attorney’s office did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

“She has had a rough time in custody,” Levy said of her client.

Holloway alleged that during her hospitalizations she was beaten by a patient, that a fellow patient snuck into her room and attempted to rape her and that a staffer sexually assaulted her.

That staffer, Charles Wilgens, faces three counts of sexual abuse of a prisoner in a pending Las Vegas Justice Court case. His attorney, Ozzie Fumo, declined to comment.

Wilgens remains employed at the Stein Forensic Hospital, where he is accused of abusing Holloway between April 2020 and March 2021, said Daniel Vezmar, a spokesperson for the Division of Public and Behavioral Health. Wilgens “has been reassigned to non-patient care duties at Stein,” Vezmar said.

In jail, Holloway said she writes. She plans to publish an autobiography soon.

And every day, she prays for her daughter, who was with her during the crash, and whom she said she has not seen since then.

She said she hopes to find closure and doesn’t want people to think she’s concerned only about herself.

“It was a tragic event and I acknowledge that,” she said.