Probation Violation Sends Mannes to Prison : Crime: A weekend drinking binge ends the freedom of Somis woman who killed three youths and injured two five years ago.

Five years after killing three teen-agers in one of Ventura County’s bloodiest drunk-driving cases, Diane Helen Mannes was sentenced Wednesday to 44 months in prison for violating probation.

Mannes, 39, received no prison sentence last year when she pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter for running down the young men in 1989 as they walked along the road shoulder to get help for a flat tire on the Conejo Grade.

The sentence of three years and eight months is the first prison term for the Somis woman since she was released in a plea bargain agreement. She had served about two years for injuring two other boys in the crash, but she was granted probation instead of a prison term for the deaths in exchange for the manslaughter plea. The widely publicized case went as high as the U.S. Supreme Court.

Superior Court Judge Charles R. McGrath revoked Mannes’ probation Wednesday after Mannes admitted to drinking alcohol, falsifying Alcoholic Anonymous attendance cards and failing to attend AA meetings.

Mannes, who appeared to have no family members or friends among the courtroom spectators, displayed no emotion as the judge announced the sentence. She lowered her head and avoided eye contact with photographers as she was led back to County Jail.

The most recent violation occurred last weekend, said sheriff’s deputies, who found Mannes drunk in a parked car surrounded by empty beer, wine and liquor bottles.

The prison sentence was instantly applauded by prosecutors and relatives of Mannes’ victims in the 1989 wreck.

“Yes, it is a victory, finally,” said Linda Oxenreider, whose 19-year-old son, Joshua, was one of the youths who died. “I’ve been waiting five years to send her to prison.”

Under California law, Mannes could be paroled in just under two years, lawyers said. Inmates typically serve about half their prison sentences, after receiving credit for good conduct.

“I think she should have been in prison a long time ago for 15 years,” Oxenreider said. “That would have been five years for each boy killed.”

But Deputy Public Defender Robert A. Dahlstedt said Mannes is not the villain portrayed by prosecutors and victims’ relatives.

Until last weekend she had faithfully stayed away from alcohol, he said. Mannes acknowledged to police that she had been on a two-day binge prior to her arrest early Saturday.

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Dahlstedt said she began drinking last week after giving up antidepressant pills on the advice of psychologists and becoming jittery.

“She is a nice person, and that’s the sad fact about alcohol,” Dahlstedt said. “It turns somebody who should never hurt anybody into a killer.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Kevin G. DeNoce said Mannes had run out of breaks. DeNoce said Mannes apparently did not exercise her right to have a hearing on the allegations that she violated her probation because the evidence against her was too solid.

“Even Diane Mannes was convinced that what she did was worthy of a state prison commitment,” DeNoce said. “I think Diane Mannes realized this was her last fight, and it was time to throw in the towel.”

On Saturday, Deputy Timothy Waite reported finding Mannes in the passenger seat of a parked car with a man identified as Richard Romney just after 1:15 a.m. at Pleasant Valley Park in Camarillo.

A breath test showed that her blood-alcohol level was .245%--more than three times the legal limit for driving. The car was littered with a 1 1/2-pint bottle of vodka, a three-quart bottle of wine, an empty malt liquor bottle, an empty beer can and an empty bottle of Zima, another alcoholic beverage.

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A paper bag containing two empty cans of Club Margaritas lay on the ground outside the passenger door, Waites’ report said.

Several weeks earlier, Mannes had been accused of missing the AA meetings and forging the attendance cards. A hearing on those alleged probation violations was pending when she was arrested at the park.

“I don’t know what sets her off,” DeNoce said. “But each violation is getting worse and worse.”

Dahlstedt said Mannes’ anxiety about the allegations she had missed AA meetings, combined with her decision not to take the antidepressant pills, led to last weekend’s binge.

He said she drank in an effort “to self-medicate.”

“The pressure just got to her,” Dahlstedt said.

He also said that she is remorseful for her actions, including the three deaths and the pain and suffering she caused family and friends.

The 1989 crash that killed the three boys occurred barely a day after Mannes had been arrested in Los Angeles County on drunk-driving charges. She was out on bail when she plowed into the boys on the westbound Conejo Grade. Her blood-alcohol content then was .20%.

Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury charged Mannes with second-degree murder, but the jury deadlocked and the trial judge dismissed the charge, saying he doubted that any jury would be able to agree on a murder charge.

Defense attorneys argued that the judge’s comments constituted an acquittal, and the federal courts agreed. After the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take the case, Bradbury agreed to accept the guilty plea to vehicular manslaughter.