COUNTYWIDE : Double Jeopardy Claim Delays Trial
The second murder trial of Diane Mannes was delayed last week by a U.S. District Court judge until he can determine whether it would put her in double jeopardy.
Mannes, 35, of Somis, was scheduled to be tried today in Ventura County Superior Court on three second-degree murder charges. She is accused of killing three young men in March, 1989, in a drunk-driving accident on the Conejo Grade.
But on Friday, Judge A. Wallace Tashima issued a restraining order to keep Superior Court from retrying Mannes on murder until he can hold a hearing. Tashima ordered Ventura County Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald C. Glynn to file briefs by today outlining his arguments in the case, and Deputy Public Defender Robert Dahlstedt to file briefs by Aug. 27.
In November, Ventura County Superior Court Judge Robert J. Soares dismissed the murder case against Mannes after a jury convicted her of felony drunk driving but deadlocked on the second-degree murder charges.
But the district attorney’s office refiled murder charges against Mannes in Municipal Court in March, and Dahlstedt took the case to U. S. District Court in Los Angeles, arguing that a second trial would violate the constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy.
Mannes was sentenced to four years in prison on the felony drunk-driving charges.
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