Attorney wants Janene Johns’ case thrown out

A state appeals judge will rule in the next 90 days whether Janene Johns’ conviction for fatally hitting a Newport-Mesa teacher with her car in 2006 should be thrown out.

In arguments submitted in briefs to the court and then orally Monday, the attorney for Johns, 54, of Irvine argued that his client should be released and her conviction dismissed because of evidence he claims was improperly submitted during her trial last year.

Johns was convicted in 2008 of killing Candice Tift, a third-grade teacher at Eastbluff Elementary School in Newport Beach, in August 2006. Tift, a mother of one, was riding her bike down West Coast Highway when Johns hit her with her car.

Johns was convicted of vehicular manslaughter after prosecutors successfully argued she was under the influence of the sleep-aid Ambien, the cough-suppressant Mucinex and Xanax while she was driving.

She was sentenced to six years in state prison. The judge likely will rule in the next three months whether to throw out the case.

— Joseph Serna