Driver Pleads Not Guilty in School Deaths

Steven Allen Abrams, accused of deliberately ramming his car through a fence and into a playground full of preschoolers, pleaded not guilty in a Newport Beach court Friday to charges of murdering two children and attempting to kill seven other people.

Abrams, 39, who shuffled into court in chains, also faces an enhanced special-circumstances charge for multiple murder, an allegation that carries a possible death penalty.

Two of the attempted-murder charges stem from an incident shortly before the playground crash in which Abrams’ auto forced a car off the freeway, prosecutors said. Two people were in the car.

Sierra Soto, 4, and Brandon Wiener, 3, were killed and four other children and a teacher were injured May 3 when Abrams, reportedly distraught over a woman who rejected his advances, plowed his Cadillac through the chain-link fence at Southcoast Early Childhood Learning Center. Police said at the time that it was an attempt to execute the children.

The prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Debbie Lloyd, and Abrams’ attorney, Leonard Gumlia, would not comment after the arraignment before Orange County Superior Court Judge Susanne S. Shaw. Abrams is being held without bail pending a June 25 pretrial hearing.

Nobody from the Wiener or Soto families was in court.

The school reopened last week, though its director, Sheryl Hawkinson, is still recuperating from a mild heart attack she suffered after the crash. She was released May 12 from Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian.