Cause of death in Vegas Strip crash a homicide

People stop to look at makeshift memorial for crash victims on the strip in Las Vegas on Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2015.

LAS VEGAS (AP) – A woman accused of intentionally plowing a vehicle carrying her child through crowds of pedestrians on a Las Vegas Strip sidewalk is distraught and overwhelmed, her defense attorney said after she briefly appeared in court for the first time.

Lakeisha Nicole Holloway, believed to be from the OR area, has been charged in a criminal complaint with murder with the use of a deadly weapon in connection to Sunday’s crash, which killed a 32-year-old mother of three and sent over 30 people to the hospital.

On the same day that police say LaKeisha Holloway used her auto to run down as many pedestrians as possible in Las Vegas, Nev., on Sunday, another driver in Dijon, France, did the same.

Her next appearance will be on January 20 at 8 a.m. The district attorney spoke to the gathered media afterwards and said that they are still waiting on drug test results.

The attack on Sunday came one day after French police shot and killed a man inside of a police station after he attacked law enforcement officers with a knife while shouting “Allahu Akbar”.

Her public defender says that just because she’s charged, it doesn’t mean she’s guilty. In Nevada, the plea is assumed during an initial court appearance.

During her appearance, Holloway waived the right to a preliminary hearing under the assumption more charges would be filed against her. Six people remained hospitalized Wednesday, including two in critical condition.

The defense lawyer acknowledged that Holloway’s mental health could become an issue, but said she hadn’t had a psychological evaluation.

Holloway was being held without bail at the Clark County Detention Center. The video may not be made public until a later court hearing. The child wasn’t hurt and was in the custody of the county’s child protective services agency.

Holloway is from OR, where she changed her name in October to Paris Paradise Morton. “I expect she is going to be in a hard state”.

“Today I’m not the identical scared woman I was”, Holloway stated in the video. “I’m a mature young woman”.

She told police after she was arrested that she was broke, homeless and exhausted of being shooed away from casino parking garages, where she and her daughter had been sleeping in a 1996 Oldsmobile. She went about a mile with a broken windshield and a flattened tire before pulling into an off-Strip hotel and telling a valet to call 911, authorities said.

“She ended up on the Strip, ‘a place she did not want to be, ‘” a police report quoted her as saying.

People jumped on the automotive and banged on its home windows, however Holloway stored driving, authorities say.