Opening statements made

Was an Irvine woman under the influence of prescription drugs or suffering from a mental breakdown when she crashed her car into a Costa Mesa teacher on her bicycle killing her in August 2006? That will be the main question for jurors to sort as the prosecution and defense of Janene Johns began with opening statements Monday in the vehicular manslaughter trial.

Johns, 53, was driving her silver 2006 Lexus down West Coast Highway when her car swerved onto the sidewalk and struck 31-year-old Candace Tift, an Eastbluff Elementary School third-grade teacher from Costa Mesa. Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Mestman told jurors Johns was on a virtual prescription drug cocktail of Xanax, Ambien sleeping pills and Mucinex cough medicine when she hit Tift on Aug. 23, 2006.

Defense Atty. Gary Pohlson didn’t altogether rebuff the idea that Johns may have appeared inebriated, rather he focused on his assertion that she had been suffering from something that, “could explain away all her actions.” He did not spell it out, but Mestman acknowledged that Johns’ husband died six weeks before the accident.

There were indications in Monday’s testimony and in pre-trial motions last week that the argument could turn to whether Johns was functioning in an unconscious state and was not aware of the accident. Defense attorneys may argue this could absolve Johns of the vehicular manslaughter charges she faces.

“This case is really about a young woman by the name of Candace Tift,” Mestman told jurors. Tift’s family and friends occupied the courtroom Monday, listening to detail after detail about the moments leading up to the accident that would eventually kill her.

Witnesses described seeing Tift look back at the Lexus only moments before it upended her on her bike, sending her almost 40 feet down the sidewalk. Pictures of the shattered windshield and police markings on the cement showing where Tift lie on the ground brought the family to tears. Some closed their eyes, others plugged their ears as witnesses described what they had seen and heard.

Pohlson rarely challenged witness testimony until the subject turned toward Johns’ demeanor after the accident. When one witness described Johns as sitting in her car with a dazed, almost vacant look on her face after the crash, Pohlson had him elaborate. Later, he had an officer clarify that tire marks on the cement around the crash were not skid marks.

Witnesses who testified Monday said they did not see Johns brake as she drove over a parking meter, hit Tift, knocked over a fire hydrant and crashed into a parked car. It could prove a valuable detail if Pohlson plans to contend that Johns was not mentally aware, or conscious when she got into the accident.

Judge Daniel McNerney has allowed a psychiatrist to testify who will likely say Johns may not have been conscious when she was driving. If she was not legally conscious, there’s a possibility she may not be held legally responsible for the accident, Mestman said during motion hearings last week.

Testimony will continue today in Santa Ana court.

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.