Woman pleads not guilty in fatal ND base crash

FARGO, N.D. (AP) — A Texas woman accused of crashing a pickup truck onto a North Dakota military base, killing her passenger, has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter.

Mary Burns, 32, of Dayton, Texas, faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted in the Sept. 14 crash at the North Dakota Air National Guard base that killed her friend, Harold Pinkney Jr., 55, of Toledo, Ohio.

Burns told a detective that she had been drinking before the crash. She was rifling for her GPS when she lost control of the pickup, police said.

The vehicle launched into the air and crashed through a fence onto the base. Pinkney was declared dead at the scene, the Forum newspaper reported (http://bit.ly/sRq18E ). An electronic sensor in the pickup indicated it was going 64 mph in a 25-mph speed zone about five seconds before impact, the report states.

At a Thursday probable cause hearing, Assistant State's Attorney Cherie Clark introduced evidence indicating that Burns' blood-alcohol content was more than twice the legal limit to drive.

Burns also pleaded not guilty Thursday to misdemeanor charges of drunken driving and hit-and-run in connection with a separate incident in August.

Those charges allege that Burns was drunk when she backed into an attended vehicle and left the scene without leaving her insurance and contact information, the Forum reported.

Burns remained Friday in the Cass County Jail on a $50,000 bond.

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