Driver Enters Plea in Fatal Crash on Graduation Night

Justin Neff pleaded not guilty Tuesday to vehicular manslaughter in the drunk-driving accident that killed a former fellow Fillmore Senior High School student just five hours after graduation.

Neff, 20, of Garden Grove stood quietly in the jury box in Ventura County Municipal Court, dressed in prison uniform and leg irons, as his attorneys entered his plea in the June 15 accident that killed 18-year-old James Anderson of Fillmore.

Neff, who graduated from Fillmore Senior High School in 1987, had driven from Garden Grove the morning of June 14 to attend graduation.

After the ceremony, Anderson hitched a ride with Neff as they left a party, witnesses have said.

At 12:30 a.m. Neff’s Camaro veered off a winding road south of Fillmore and struck a power pole. The impact snapped the pole, crushed Anderson in the passenger seat and flung Neff from the vehicle, authorities said.

Witnesses have said beer cans were strewn around the wreck.

On Tuesday, Neff’s attorneys, Michael Norris and Richard Loy, made discovery requests for records and evidence, which included blood samples taken from Neff shortly after the accident, to be studied for alcohol content by an independent laboratory; and videotapes of Neff taken by a gas station surveillance camera shortly before the accident.

Norris also asked Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Holmes to clarify the charges against Neff. Holmes explained that Neff is accused of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and drunk driving, the second of which included special allegations that Neff was speeding and failed to remain on the road.

At the time of Anderson’s death, Neff was serving three years probation on a 1988 drunk-driving conviction, and had pleaded guilty to another drunk-driving charge just two days earlier.

He remains in Ventura County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of drunk driving and gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 27 in Municipal Court.