Driver, 17, Charged in Deaths of 3 Pals : Crash: Police say that an auto, driven by the suspect and carrying four other San Clemente-area students, may have reached speeds of 120 m.p.h. when it flipped.

After a two-month police investigation, vehicular manslaughter charges have been filed against the driver of the car in which three of his classmates at San Clemente High School were killed on May 19.

“It was a very extensive investigation,” said Sgt. Richard E. Downing of the San Clemente Police Department. “A lot of effort went into finding out just what happened,” he said Sunday.

The accident stunned the high school, where many of the students went into counseling to help deal with their grief. More than 200 students visited the death scene, many leaving flowers to pay tribute to the victims.

Five teen-agers had been in a 1988 Jaguar when it went out of control at an estimated 120 m.p.h. along a narrow section of Avenida Pico. Police say teen-agers favor this stretch for drag-racing.

Those killed were two brothers, David Martinez, 16, and Marco Martinez, 17, and Abel Aguilar Jr., 18, all of San Clemente. Another student in the car, Thomas Sheehan, 18, listed as a resident of San Juan Capistrano, suffered two broken legs. The driver, a 17-year-old whose name was not released, suffered minor injuries.

The driver was arrested Saturday after the three counts were filed against him on Friday by the Orange County district attorney’s office. A hearing has been scheduled in Juvenile Court on Monday to determine whether he should be released or remain in custody at Juvenile Hall.

The car did not belong to any of the teen-agers in the accident, but rather the parents of another student, a 15-year-old.

The 15-year-old, Sheehan and the driver, were in detention at school that day, a Saturday, for misbehavior in classes earlier that week. Sheehan and the arrested teen-ager talked the 15-year-old into letting them borrow the keys to the car, which he had driven from home, so they could play the radio.

But Sheehan and the 17-year-old ran into the Martinez brothers and Aguilar, who were on the school grounds. The five of them, without the 15-year-old, decided to go for a drive, police said.

The accident occurred on a curving stretch of the road in east San Clemente near Avenida La Pata. The vehicle went out of control and slid into an embankment. Police estimate that it went about 70 feet in the air before spinning upside down and landing on its roof.

The two survivors, Sheehan and the driver, were thrown from the vehicle. The Martinez brothers were crushed to death in the back seat and Aguilar died from multiple injuries he suffered when thrown from the vehicle.