Mannes to Be Freed Pending Ruling on Retrial : Crime: An appeal court will decide if the Somis woman should be tried again on murder charges in three drunk-driving deaths.

Diane Mannes should not be jailed while appeal courts decide whether she can be retried for murder in the drunk-driving deaths of three young men, a Ventura County judge has ruled.

The decision by Superior Court Judge James M. McNally means that Mannes, 37, will regain her freedom Tuesday unless the Ventura County district attorney’s office successfully appeals the ruling. A spokeswoman said Wednesday that no decision has been made on whether to file an appeal.

“She’s very excited about getting out,” said Mannes’ attorney, Deputy Public Defender Robert Dahlstedt.

But Linda Oxenreider, whose son Joshua, 19, was struck and killed by Mannes’ Ford Bronco, expressed anguish at the prospect that Mannes will be released.

“I don’t believe that she deserves to be free and walking on the Earth while there are three boys she’s responsible for putting six feet under the earth,” Oxenreider said.

Mannes’ attorneys admit that she veered into five young men on the Conejo Grade in March, 1989, while driving with a blood-alcohol level of 0.20%--twice the legal limit at the time. At her trial later that year, she was convicted of driving drunk and causing great bodily injury to the two youths who survived. She was sentenced to four years and, with time off for good behavior, is scheduled to be released next week.

But the jury deadlocked on whether Mannes’ conduct was outrageous enough to warrant a second-degree murder conviction in the three deaths. Since then, Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury has fought for the right to retry Mannes for murder.

The stumbling block has been a ruling by Superior Court Judge Robert J. Soares, who presided at the trial. Soares, who has since retired, found that Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald C. Glynn had not proved the malice necessary for a murder conviction. The judge dismissed the charge.

State appeal courts ruled that Soares’ finding did not preclude a second murder trial. But in February, U. S. District Court Judge A. Wallace Tashima overturned the state court rulings. Tashima said that Soares’ ruling had, in effect, acquitted Mannes of murder. Under the Constitution’s double-jeopardy clause, she could not be retried on a murder charge, the federal judge said.

Tashima stayed his ruling while Bradbury appeals it in thS. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Attorneys on both sides said it may be another year before the matter is resolved.

In his ruling this week, McNally said Tashima made clear that Mannes should not be held in custody on the murder charges while the appeals continue. It would be different, McNally said, if Bradbury filed the lesser homicide charge of manslaughter, but the district attorney has insisted that it is a murder case.

Prosecutors could file a manslaughter charge to keep Mannes in custody while still trying to reinstate the murder charge. But her attorneys could insist on her right to a speedy trial, which would almost certainly be concluded long before the 9th Circuit Court rules on the murder charge.

And once Mannes is convicted--or acquitted--on a manslaughter charge, the same double-jeopardy rule would prevent a new murder trial.

Until Tashima’s ruling, Dahlstedt was willing to have Mannes plead guilty to a manslaughter charge. Now he and his associate on the case, Deputy Public Defender Neil B. Quinn, say they are no longer willing to make such a deal.

Second-degree murder carries a maximum term of 15 years to life. The most Mannes could get for vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence is 10 years, while simple vehicular manslaughter carries a maximum term of four years.

Dahlstedt said Mannes, who lived with her boyfriend in Somis when she was arrested, will live with her mother in Somis or with a sister in Camarillo after she is released. A former bookkeeper, Mannes has been serving her sentence at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, near Fresno.

“She’s going to live locally, get a job if she can, not drive and not drink,” Dahlstedt said. She will attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and cooperate with her parole agent, he added.

Oxenreider, who lives in Camarillo, said she is “upset at the idea of seeing her.”

If she happened to encounter Mannes, Oxenreider said, “I couldn’t tell you what I would do. I would be inclined to just tear her apart, I think.”

She said Mannes’ parole officer had called her to introduce himself and to see whether Oxenreider had any concerns. The parole officer could not be reached Wednesday for comment.

Dahlstedt said Mannes has “no intention of seeing the victims’ families.”

“She feels terrible for them and will try to avoid them at all costs,” Dahlstedt said.