A 24-year-old woman who evaded police and deputy sheriffs for more than a year entered a plea of not guilty in Circuit Court on Thursday to allegedly causing the death of a passenger in her car in 2010.
Circuit Judge Richard Perkins set the week of Dec. 3 for the trial of Brittany Poole before Circuit Judge Karen Ahn.
Poole’s bail was set at $20,000 for the negligent homicide charge. She also is charged with driving without a license.
She was arraigned by closed-circuit television from Oahu Community Correctional Center.
Poole was initially indicted by an Oahu grand jury in August 2011, charging her with first-degree negligent homicide and driving without a license. However, she was arrested and charged only on Saturday because police weren’t able to find her.
City prosecutors said Poole was drinking beer and smoking marijuana while driving around the island with four passengers on Nov. 21, 2010, when she started arguing with her front-seat passenger over her speeding.
Police said Poole lost control of the car, which crossed the center line on Kamehameha Highway; hit a rock wall, a parked vehicle and two fences; went airborne; and flipped over before slamming into a carport.
A back-seat passenger, Unique Murry, 21, was ejected from the car. He died at Wahiawa General Hospital.
Poole’s blood alcohol content was 0.09, over the legal limit of 0.08, and her car was traveling roughly 70 mph in a 25 mph zone, police said.
Poole had several previous convictions for driving-related offenses, including a 2009 DUI conviction, four speeding convictions in 2009 and 2010, and two other convictions in 2010 for driving without a license and driving with an instructional permit unaccompanied by a licensed driver. She also had another driving-without-a-license charge pending at the time of the crash.