Man pleads not guilty to murder charges in 2014 SXSW crash

AUSTIN, Texas Rashad Owens, charged with killing four people and injuring more than 20 others during the South By Southwest Music Festival in March 2014, pleaded not guilty to capital murder and four counts of murder.

The 23-year-old made a brief appearance Thursday before Travis County District Judge Cliff Brown, who scheduled his final hearing before trial is to take place Oct. 15.

Jury selection has been scheduled Oct. 26, and testimony is expected to begin Nov. 2.

Owens has been incarcerated at the Travis County Jail, with bail set at $5.5 million, since the deadly crash on March 14, 2014. He stands charged with capital murder and 24 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Austin police have said Owens was driving drunk and fleeing police when he drove a stolen car through a crowd of revelers. Jamie West, 27, and Steven Craenmehr, 35, died at the scene. Deandre Tatum, 18, and Sandy Le, 26, died in the days that followed.

Prosecutors have said they will not seek the death penalty, but the capital murder charge is a rare, if not unprecedented, response to a suspect accused of hitting and killing others while driving intoxicated, local and statewide legal authorities have said.

Outside the courtroom Thursday, attorney Rickey Jones, who is representing Owens, said there was nothing in his client’s criminal record that could have suggested he would one day end up in this position. He called the wreck a tragic incident that no one could have predicted.

“This is the kind of thing that could have happened to a lot of people,” he said.

(c)2015 Austin American-Statesman, Texas

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