Woman accused of Las Vegas crash appears in court

PHOENIX (KSAZ) - The woman accused of intentionally plowing a car with her child inside through crowds of people on the Las Vegas strip made her first appearance in court.

24-year-old Lakeisha Holloway has been arraigned on murder, hit-and-run, and child abuse charges. Investigators say she intentionally drove her car onto the sidewalk in Las Vegas Sunday night. The crash killed 32-year-old Jennifer Valenzuela of Buckeye and injured 35 others.

"It's a difficult situation for everybody, she's in custody, she's in an isolated cell, she's under surveillance," said Scott Coffee.

Holloway stood in shackles and did not enter a plea during her brief court appearance. She barely spoke and nodded to understand that she will remain in jail throughout the holidays while both sides investigate the crash.

"There is video evidence as you all can imagine there's a number of cameras in and about the Las Vegas strip, I have viewed many of the videos, the video evidence is quite compelling," said Prosecutor Steve Wolfson.

Holloway's public defender characterized his 24-year-old client as distraught.

"This is tragic for everybody involved, and as the days go by and the gravity of what happened sinks in, I expect that she's going to be in a very difficult mental state," said Joseph Abood.