PASADENA, CALIF. (AP) - A trucker whose big-rig smashed into a Los Angeles-area bookstore and left a young girl and her father dead has pleaded not guilty to vehicular manslaughter.
A court clerk says Marcos Costa was released on $200,000 bail after entering his plea Monday.
The 43-year-old Costa was scheduled to return to court in Pasadena on May 13 for a preliminary hearing on the two felony counts.
Investigators say Costa ignored posted weight restrictions that barred big rigs from a foothill highway. They said the vehicle lost its brakes and smashed into cars then blasted through a bookstore in a row of businesses in La Canada Flintridge.
The 12-year-old girl and her father in one of the cars were killed. Another dozen people were hurt, three of them critically.
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