Motorist Enters Guilty Plea in 3 Deaths : Courts: Diane Mannes of Somis is convicted of manslaughter in the 1989 accident while intoxicated.

In a surprise move Tuesday, a Somis woman pleaded guilty to gross vehicular manslaughter in the 1989 drunk-driving deaths of three young men, ending a lengthy legal battle that stretched more than four years and went as high as the U.S. Supreme Court.

Diane Helen Mannes, who admitted killing the three young men when her car swerved off the Ventura Freeway’s Conejo Grade while she was intoxicated, will serve no more prison time as part of the plea agreement.

Mannes, 38, was convicted in 1989 of injuring two other youths in the crash and served just over half of a four-year prison term.

But the jury deadlocked on three second-degree murder charges. When the district attorney’s office sought to retry Mannes for murder, a federal court blocked the proceeding.

U.S. District Judge A. Wallace Tashima ruled that the trial judge had in effect acquitted Mannes of murder when he wrote that there was insufficient evidence to support a murder verdict.

The Constitution’s prohibition against double jeopardy protects defendants from being tried twice for the same offense.

After the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Tashima and the Supreme Court declined to hear the case, the district attorney’s office proceeded on the gross vehicular manslaughter case.

But Superior Court Judge James M. McNally ruled in February that the double-jeopardy rule applied to any homicide charges stemming from the case, and ruled that manslaughter charges could not be brought either.

The district attorney’s office appealed McNally’s ruling, but decided to drop the appeal as part of Tuesday’s plea agreement.

“It’s the best approximation of justice obtainable in light of the previous judicial rulings,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Kevin G. DeNoce said of the plea agreement. “It’s the next best legal charge we could proceed with.”

The agreement calls for Mannes to receive a suspended prison term of three years and eight months and five years probation. Mannes could be sent to prison if she violates terms of the probation, which also stipulates that she abstain from alcohol.

Linda Oxenreider of Camarillo, the mother of one of the victims, supported the agreement but said the resolution of the case came “four years too late.”

“If (Mannes) had any remorse or cared that she killed these boys . . . I’ve never seen any,” said Oxenreider, whose 19-year-old son, Joshua, was killed. “I believe she was guilty of second-degree murder.”

Since her son’s death, Oxenreider has become president of the Ventura County chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Every week, she spends hours in court monitoring other DUI cases.

Jacob Boyd, 14, of Camarillo and Darrin Scott Mullins, 20, of Ohio, also were killed in the crash, which occurred after the youths had a flat tire and were walking down the winding Conejo Grade to summon help.

Mannes, who had consumed a pint of vodka, swerved left to avoid the disabled vehicle in the emergency lane, then overcorrected and plowed into the group of five youths, the California Highway Patrol reported.

Mannes spoke only briefly at Tuesday’s proceeding, answering a series of questions related to the plea agreement. Her voice cracked and she wept softly as she apologized for her actions.

“I want to take responsibility for what I have done,” she told Judge McNally. “I am truly sorry.”

The judge called the plea agreement “appropriate and acceptable.”

Mannes declined to comment after entering her plea, but Deputy Public Defender Robert A. Dahlstedt released a statement from Mannes reiterating her sorrow and urging others not to drink and drive.

“I hope that those members of the public that drink realize that they could be in the same position I am in now,” the statement said. “If I could, I would turn back the clock and bring these young men back.”

Mannes had been arrested in the San Fernando Valley on suspicion of drunk driving the night before the fatal crash, and also had been convicted of an earlier DUI charge. She completed a drunk-driving course after the first arrest, according to court records.

Dahlstedt said outside court Tuesday that Mannes no longer drinks alcohol.

DeNoce and Dahlstedt said they had been working for several weeks on the plea agreement.

“Both of us recognized that this was going to go on another two years” without a settlement, said DeNoce. “At least under our agreement, she is legally responsible (for the deaths).”

The prosecutor chastised Superior Court Judge Robert J. Soares, whose comments resulted in the double jeopardy ruling, for creating “a technicality which ends up causing an unfortunate outcome.”

After the 1989 mistrial on the murder charges, Soares said there was “insufficient evidence in this case that the defendant acted with implied malice as required for a verdict of guilty of murder.”

Implied malice--knowingly committing a dangerous act with conscious disregard for life--must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt to obtain a murder conviction.

Soares has since retired from the bench.

If prosecutors had chosen to try Mannes for gross vehicular manslaughter four years ago, she could have received up to 15 years and eight months in prison upon conviction, DeNoce said.

Mannes is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 13.