Man Pleads Not Guilty in Deaths : Arraignment: He’s accused of driving at high speed while intoxicated and striking a parked vehicle on the freeway. Two women inside the struck car were killed.

A Panorama City man pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated in the deaths of two women north of Ventura early Saturday.

Arturo C. Quintero, 22, is charged with two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, one count of causing bodily injury while driving under the influence, and one count of driving with a suspended license.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard E. Holmes said the fatal crash occurred about 3:25 a.m. Saturday as Quintero drove north on the Ventura Freeway at about 85 m.p.h. About a mile south of the Santa Barbara County line, Quintero ran off the road and plowed into the rear of a parked Mustang, Holmes said.

The impact killed Sonia Schneider, 25, of Santa Barbara and Alicia Cranney, 26, of Santa Maria, who were inside the Mustang. The women, who were returning home after watching motorcycle races in Bakersfield, had been following a car and trailer driven by two of their friends. They had pulled over when the friends stopped to check a trailer tire, Holmes said.

One of the friends, Jacqueline Antles, 31, of Goleta, was seriously injured and remained in critical condition Thursday at a Santa Barbara hospital. Quintero received minor injuries.

Quintero, who was on his way to visit his brother in Carpinteria, was seen driving at high speeds before the crash, Holmes said. The prosecutor asked that anyone who saw a brown Camaro on the Ventura Freeway or California 126 or 118 early Saturday contact the district attorney’s office or the California Highway Patrol.

Holmes declined to discuss the possibility of upgrading the manslaughter charges to second-degree murder. “We’re always interested in more information,” he said. “It can change our minds.”

Watching from the front row at Quintero’s arraignment Thursday was Linda Oxenreider, president of the Ventura County chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Her son Joshua, 19, was one of three young men who were killed in 1989 when an admitted drunk driver, Diane Mannes, drove off the freeway near Camarillo.

Mannes was charged with second-degree murder in those deaths, but the jury was unable to agree on a verdict. The case is now tied up in appeals over whether the district attorney can retry her on murder charges.

Holmes said he did not try the Mannes case and said he could not discuss why Mannes was tried for murder and Quintero is charged with a lesser crime.

But he said a prosecutor considers several factors before deciding what charges to file in a traffic-related homicide. “You look at the total aggravating factors that show the state of mind” of the driver, he said.

At the lowest level, he said, is vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, which carries a maximum prison term of four years.

More serious is gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, which carries a maximum term of 10 years. To prove that charge, prosecutors must show that the driver acted with gross negligence--more than mere failure to exercise ordinary care.

“Way above that,” Holmes said, “you have second-degree murder.” Second-degree murder carries a prison term of 15 years to life.

In 1981, when the California Supreme Court allowed murder charges to be filed in drunk-driving homicides, the justices cautioned that “only the most aggravated cases should be filed in that manner,” Holmes said.

“Our investigation to date has not placed this case in that category,” Holmes said, referring to the Quintero case. “But it has placed it in a category above vehicular manslaughter.”

Mannes had been arrested in the San Fernando Valley on suspicion of drunk-driving one day before the fatal crash. After her release on bail, her boyfriend warned her of the dangers of drunk driving, according to testimony at her trial. No charges were ever filed in that case.

Quintero was convicted of drunk driving in 1990 in Los Angeles County, according to records cited Thursday in Ventura County Municipal Court.

Quintero said nothing during his brief court appearance, where he was assisted by a Spanish-speaking interpreter. Judge Art Gutierrez refused to allow Quintero to be photographed.

He also declined a request by Holmes to increase Quintero’s $100,000 bail.

“He is a Mexican national and if given the chance, he would have every reason to leave this country at the same speed at which this accident occurred,” Holmes said.

Deputy Public Defender Alison A. O’Neill asked that bail be lowered to $10,000, saying Quintero was unlikely to be able to post even that amount.

Gutierrez continued the bail at $100,000 and scheduled a preliminary hearing for July 16.

Services were held Wednesday for Cranney, who was a secretary for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department. She is survived by her husband, Timothy D. Cranney, and a 7-year-old daughter, Krystal Marie Simpkins.

Services for Schneider were held Thursday. She held jobs at a Santa Barbara bank and at an electronics store. She is survived by her parents, Anneliese and Richard Schneider, a brother, and a sister.