Driver in Wrong-Way Crash That Killed 4 Pleads Not Guilty

A 25-year-old Lancaster man pleaded not guilty Friday to murder and drunk-driving charges in connection with a wrong-way collision Dec. 11 on the Ventura Freeway in Agoura that killed four.

Daniel E. Murray entered his plea before Van Nuys Municipal Commissioner Patricia G. Schwartz, who ordered that he remain in custody in lieu of $350,000 bail.

A preliminary hearing was set for Feb. 10.

The victims were the mother, brother, grandfather and girlfriend of Jamaal Brown, a 17-year-old basketball player at Buena High School in Ventura.

Brown, riding home in the team bus after a game in Beverly Hills that the family had attended, happened upon the scene shortly after the crash.

Murray, an equipment operator for an aerospace firm, has two previous misdemeanor convictions for alcohol-related driving offenses, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert H. McIntosh.

Murray faces four counts of second-degree murder, four counts of vehicular manslaughter and six counts of drunk driving.

If convicted of second-degree murder, Murray faces 15 years to life in prison.

McIntosh said California law is unclear as to whether sentences for the four counts of second-degree murder can be served at the same time or imposed to run consecutively.

He said the drunk-driving charges stem from incidents immediately before the fatal crash, which occurred on the freeway’s eastbound lanes near Liberty Canyon.

The California Highway Patrol said that Murray, driving a pickup truck, had been speeding the wrong way for about five miles, hitting two other vehicles and forcing several cars off the road.

Murray’s blood-alcohol level, taken an hour after the crash, was .19%, nearly twice the .10% that is the legal limit for a presumption of drunkenness, police said.