Manslaughter case back in court

Diane Shakhov appeared at the Ventura County Courthouse on Jan. 15 to determine if she's competent to stand trial a second time on manslaughter charges, but the hearing was postponed for another week.

"We're contemplating a resolution," Shakhov's attorney Howard Price said.

On June 2, 2003 Shakhov was arrested on DUI-causing-injury and gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated charges after an incident the previous month in which her car rear-ended another vehicle and killed the driver, a 17year-old Westlake High School student.

Nicole Johnson, a standout athlete and member of the Warrior track team, was driving in her car following an afternoon practice at the high school.

Johnson was traveling westbound on Thousand Oaks Boulevard at the Lakeview Canyon Road intersection in Westlake Village and was stopped in the right lane at a red light when a BMW driven by Shakhov, who was 31 at the time, failed to stop and slammed into the back of Johnson's car.

There were no skid marks indicating an attempt to stop, police said.

Johnson's Volkswagen Jetta was hurled into a utility pole and her neck was broken, Dep. Rick Godfrey recalled.

Shakhov allegedly was driving between 60 to 67 mph in a 45-mph zone. A drug test showed she had 2½ times the therapeutic limit of the prescription drug Soma, a muscle relaxant, police said. Her defense at the trial claimed the test was inaccurate.

In Feburary 2006, nine jurors agreed on manslaughter charges, while three insisted on manslaughter with gross negligence. The deadlocked jury resulted in a mistrial.

The new trial would include three lesser manslaughter charges, giving the jury an alternative to the more serious charge that led to the 2006 mistrial.

Senior Dep. District Attorney Scott Hendrickson would not comment on the case.

Following the tragic incident, a scholarship fund was created in Johnson's name. Each year in their daughter's memory the Johnson family joins with the Westlake High School Scholarship Foundation to award money to a deserving student.

"Her death was a sad, horrible, terrible tragedy," said Sally Adamski, the scholarship foundation treasurer.