Case for teacher’s death rescheduled for April 14

The trial for an Irvine woman charged with manslaughter in connection with a fatal accident that killed an Eastbluff Elementary School teacher in 2006 has been rescheduled for April 14, court records show.

Jury selection for Janene Johns, 53, was scheduled for Monday but had to be delayed because of scheduling conflicts for her lawyer, Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Mestman said.

Johns pleaded not guilty June 11 to charges of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and driving under the influence and causing injury.

On Aug. 24, 2006, 31-year-old Eastbluff Elementary teacher Candace Tift was on the West Coast Highway sidewalk in Newport Beach. About 7:37 p.m., a woman driving a Lexus veered onto the curb and hit her, police said. She died a day later at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana, police said.

— Joseph Serna