Prosecutors say that a 21-year-old Arizona woman was on drugs when she plowed through a group of teenagers "like dominoes."

But while conceding she used illegal drugs, Jessica Williams maintains that she was not impaired by marijuana or Ecstasy but that she fell asleep when her van fatally crashed into six teenagers on the side of a Nevada highway.

Lawyers presented opening arguments Monday to the jury deciding whether to find Williams guilty of manslaughter, driving under the influence or reckless driving. If convicted, the former stripper could face 120 years in prison.

Williams, with her long hair pulled back into a tight ponytail, peered down at the defense table through her glasses while listening to prosecutor Gary Booker make his opening argument.

"What this case is about is six people," Booker said, announcing the name of each victim for the first of several times during his argument.

Prosecutor Gary Booker

Booker then detailed the March 19, 2000, incident, which left the six teens — Scott Garner, Anthony Smith, Rebeccah Glicken, Maleyna Stoltzfus, Alberto Puig and Jennifer Booth — dead. They were among a group picking up trash along the highway as part of a probation program for youths convicted of minor infractions.

Repeatedly referring to the group as "the children," Booker told the panel that they will hear testimony from other teens who saw Williams' white Ford van plow into the median.

Giving the jury a preview of what he expects prosecution witnesses to say on the stand, Booker said that some of the teens saw Williams awake as the van careened toward them.

"They'll testify about the stacking of the children as the van plowed through," Booker said. "If I'm not being cavalier, similar to dominoes."

Booker also told the jury that Williams admitted to investigators on the scene that she smoked marijuana just hours before the afternoon crash.

"She went to the vehicle, managed to pull out a marijuana pipe but was unable to locate the marijuana immediately," Booker said.

A blood test that followed, according to the prosecutor, also revealed that she had taken the drug Ecstasy.

Booker said that the state will show that Williams is guilty of manslaughter regardless of whether she was asleep, charging that she was under the influence of drugs at the time the accident occurred.

"Whether that manifests itself in being awake or being asleep led the defendant to not operate her vehicle safely," he said.

But while admitting that Williams did take drugs, defense lawyer John Watkins told the panel that she was not impaired by them — a fact he says must lead them to acquit Williams of the stiffest charges she faces.

"This case is about, was Jessica impaired when she was driving her automobile — plain and simple," he said.

"The state is going to ask you to believe that use equals impairment, and we're going to show you that it doesn't," Watkins told the panel.

The attorney said that, on his client's request, he won't even dispute the drug use charges against Williams.

Watkins attempted to paint his young client as a nature lover who spent the hours before the accident in Valley of Fire State Park with a friend.

While at the park, Watkins admitted to the jury, "they put some marijuana in a little pipe" and the two girls "shared just that one bowl."

Defense lawyer John Watkins

According to Watkins, Williams drove on winding roads and a freeway safely but feel asleep.

"The evidence is going to show — through the state's accident reconstruction expert — that the car started to drift at an 80-degree angle," Watkins told the jury.

According to the defense lawyer, the car drifted two lanes and onto the shoulder.

"This case is also about children, young adults being in the freeway median, picking up trash," he said.

Watkins prompted a fiery string of objections from Booker, however, when he addressed the safety of the trash program, which was cited for violations after the accident and subsequently suspended. Although the safety issue has given rise to a civil suit by the victims' families, it has been barred from the criminal case.

Nonetheless, the defense lawyer tried to demonstrate the 12-foot distance between the teens and passing traffic by taking a few paces back from the jury box before being cut off by Judge Mark Gibbons.

Judge Mark Gibbons

"The young folks were extremely close to the freeway and that's what the evidence is going to show in this case," he added, raising yet another objection from Booker.

Gibbons further reprimanded Watkins, who later used a projector to illustrate his main points — again mentioning the liability issue in the case.

The judge ordered Watkins to turn off the projector and out of the presence of the jury, warned him, "If you pull any more stunts like this, you'll be spending your weekends in jail."

Watkins also attempted to explain witness accounts that Williams was seen awake, claiming that the young woman woke up shortly before the impact, but by then the van was already spinning out of control.

"You're also going to hear how quick the carnage took place, and that is four seconds," he said.

According to Watkins, not only was his client cooperative with police at the scene but that the first thing she told them was that she fell asleep. "No time to fabricate," he said.

"Jessica never willfully and wantonly harmed anyone," Watkins said. "The evidence will show she did not commit DUI, she was not impaired."

Following opening arguments, prosecutors called more than a dozen witnesses to the stand, including family members of each of the victims who identified their deceased loved ones.

Also testifying was one of the teens' supervisors, whose emotional testimony prodded Williams to tears.

"We turned around," said Davetta Mitchell through sobs, "and we hear all the bodies getting crushed."

Davetta Mitchell

"I said, 'Hail Mary, pray for the sinners now at the time of their deaths.'" she said.

Mitchell said she was too scared to take the pulse of one of the victims, but watched as others took the pulses of some victims and discovered they were dead.

"She said pulse — dead, dead, dead, dead," Mitchell said. Mitchell said that she prevented teens on the scene from following through on threats to beat Williams, who she said emerged from the van and lit up a cigarette without even coming over and asking about the teens.

Also taking the stand Monday afternoon was the medical examiner who performed the autopsies on all six victims. Dr. Lary Simms offered the jury graphic accounts of the injuries the teens suffered in the wreck. One victim, Scott Garner Jr., he said, was nearly decapitated.

As he described the injuries, observers in the courtroom cried and many of the jurors took notes.

Testimony is expected to continue all week.