Youth Pleads Not Guilty in Fatal Crash

A high school senior pleaded not guilty to four counts of vehicular manslaughter Tuesday in the deaths resulting from a high-speed crash last week in Santa Clarita.

Before a courtroom packed with friends and relatives of both the defendant and the four who died, prosecutors asked that bail be doubled to $500,000 for Marcus Christian Lellan, 18, of Santa Clarita.

Police said the Canyon High School student may have been driving his white Acura as fast as 100 mph when he sped around other vehicles and through a bicycle lane, losing control and crashing into an oncoming Mustang.

The dead included three of Lellan’s teenage passengers, including two brothers.

Lellan could face up to 10 years in prison, Deputy Dist. Atty. David Jacobs said. Judge Alan S. Rosenfield set a preliminary hearing for March 23.

Many of the close to 70 people--mostly teenagers--who crowded into the Newhall Municipal Court to show their support for Lellan gasped when Jacobs announced he would seek a bail increase.

“There was a high level of culpability here,” Jacobs said afterward. “The bail reflects the degree of wanton negligence, the speed of the car.”

Lellan remained in custody Tuesday, having not posted the lower bail amount. The proposed bail increase will be decided at a March 3 hearing.

Lellan’s attorney, James Blatt, said the teenager was “deeply sorry” about the accident and that his parents had communicated their regrets to parents of the Canyon High School students killed.

Many in the courtroom wept when Lellan appeared in his blue jail jumpsuit, barely looking at the gallery and muttering his responses to Rosenfield.

Lellan’s arraignment occurred a few hours after a memorial service for crash victim Dominic Whit Ianozzi, 16, at Grace Baptist Church in Saugus. Services are scheduled at the same church Thursday for brothers Timothy Lee Renolds, 17, and Daniel Richard Renolds, 15. Rodney Adams, 45, the Mustang driver, will be memorialized Friday, also at Grace Baptist.