Editor’s Note: This story was update at 12:05 p.m. June 10 with reporting from the courthouse.
VISTA — An allegedly drugged driver accused in the deaths of a woman, her boyfriend and her two young grandsons in Escondido pleaded not guilty today to charges of murder and gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.
Williams is being held on $1 million bail and is due back in court July 7 for a readiness conference.
Earlier
An Escondido resident who allegedly was intoxicated when the car she was driving struck and killed a woman, her boyfriend and her two young grandsons, was slated to make her initial court appearance today.
Ashley Rene Williams, 28, is accused in the May 5 deaths of Carmela Camacho, 50; Abel Valdez, 33; Yovanny Felix, 10; and Emmanuel Riva, 11, according to police.
The couple and the boys were walking in the area of Oak Hill Drive and San Pasqual Valley Road in Escondido when Williams’ northbound 2014 Mazda3 struck them shortly before 8:30 p.m. on May 5, Lt. Scott Walters said.
Valdez and the older child died at the scene. Medics took Camacho and Yovanny to Palomar Medical Center, where they were pronounced dead.
Williams was transported to Scripps Memorial Hospital for treatment of moderately serious injuries.
She was arrested at her home last Thursday on suspicion of DUI and four counts of murder, according to the Escondido Police Department. Police have not disclosed what substance or substances Williams had allegedly digested.
She’s being held without bail, according to county jail records.
Calling the case “a devastating event for our community,” Escondido police said it took four weeks to make an arrest because investigators had analyze copious evidence, including cellphone and vehicle computer data, roadway measurements and laboratory test results.
