Trial delayed for woman involved in teacher’s death

The trial for an Irvine woman charged with killing an Eastbluff Elementary School teacher with her car in 2006 will likely be delayed at least another couple of weeks, Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Mestman said Friday.

Janene Johns, 53, pleaded not guilty June 11 to charges of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and driving under the influence. Her trial was set to begin Monday. Her lawyer is unavailable because he is working another case, Mestman said.

On Aug. 24, 2006, 31-year-old Eastbluff Elementary third- and fourth-grade teacher Candace Tift was riding her bike and walking her dog on the West Coast Highway sidewalk in Newport Beach, not far from her Costa Mesa home. About 7:37 p.m., a woman driving a Lexus veered onto the curb and hit her, police said. Emergency vehicles found Tift lying on the sidewalk with severe head and bodily injuries. She died a day later at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana, police said. She was not wearing a helmet when she was hit.

The driver of the Lexus, Johns, was arrested at the scene on suspicion of driving under the influence of prescription drugs, authorities said. The charges were later enhanced.

— Joseph Serna