Trial to start for woman who struck, killed teacher

The trial for an Irvine woman charged in connection with the death of a Newport Beach teacher in a car accident while under the influence of prescription drugs will begin Monday, prosecutors said.

Janene Johns, 53, killed Eastbluff Elementary School third-grade teacher Candace Tift in August 2006 when her Lexus veered off the road and hit Tift, authorities said. Tift was walking her dog while riding a bicycle without a helmet.

Prosecutors unsuccessfully pushed to withhold from the jury the fact that Johns’ husband died six weeks before the accident, arguing the information would make jurors unfairly sympathetic. Johns’ attorney claims she was on prescription drugs for her grief and may not have been mentally conscious when she crashed.

Judge Daniel McNerney ruled that Johns’ husband’s death is key for the defense and will be allowed, as will a testimony from a psychiatrist who said Johns was possibly unaware of what she was doing when she was driving.

The trial is expected to last at least a week, prosecutor Robert Mestman said.

— Joseph Serna