Driver Is Facing 2 Counts of Murder in Students’ Deaths : Crime: The Palmdale man was also charged with evading arrest and assault with a deadly weapon after a Pacoima shooting incident.

A Palmdale man was charged with murder Tuesday for allegedly killing two San Fernando Valley teen-agers last week in a car crash in Mission Hills.

Ray Vargas Servin was charged with two counts of murder and one count of evading an officer in connection with the accident Friday that killed Uriel Fernandez of Pacoima and Aracely Hernandez of San Fernando.

Servin allegedly was fleeing police when his pickup sped through a red light and slammed into a car carrying three high school students home from a pep rally at Sylmar High School. Police said Servin’s truck had been traveling 55 m.p.h. to 60 m.p.h. through the residential area.

Fernandez, 16, a junior at San Fernando High School, died at San Fernando Community Hospital. Hernandez, 18, a cheerleader at Sylmar High School, died at the scene. A second passenger in Fernandez’s car, Juan Melendrez, 16, suffered cuts and bruises, police said.

Servin also was charged with one count of assault with a firearm stemming from a shooting incident a few blocks from the crash site. The shooting prompted the police chase, said Deputy Dist. Atty. James A. Baker.

Servin, who turned 22 on Tuesday, pleaded not guilty before Van Nuys Municipal Court Commissioner Richard Margolin. Margolin set bail at $500,000 and scheduled a preliminary hearing for June 14.

Los Angeles police, who investigated the accident and shooting that preceded it, earlier said the was shooting gang-related. But several friends of Servin on Tuesday emphatically denied that he was a gang member and police on Tuesday also backed away from that label.

Servin is not in the Police Department’s gang files, they said.

“It all smacks of gang activity,” Detective Don Bellante said. “But we can’t substantiate that at this point.”

Los Angeles police said several young men were standing outside a house on Louvre Street in Pacoima a few blocks from the accident scene when two vehicles--one of which was Servin’s pickup--drove by.

Police said they believe a gang name was called from one of the vehicles and that Servin got out of his truck and confronted one of the men. A fistfight began and Servin allegedly went to his pickup, got a handgun and threatened the men. Police said he apparently fired several shots in the air, which were heard by a San Fernando police sergeant.

With lights flashing but with the siren off, the sergeant chased Servin’s pickup west on Chatsworth Avenue at speeds up to 60 m.p.h. before Servin ran a red light at Laurel Canyon Boulevard and collided with Fernandez’s southbound car about 9:10 p.m., Los Angeles police said.

Officials said Servin was captured as he attempted to run from the scene.

Servin, who is unemployed, grew up in the Pacoima area before his family moved to Saugus. He was paroled from state prison in September, but police declined to disclose details of his conviction.