A week after a Windsor man was found lying in a center lane of Highway 101, the Santa Rosa driver accused of leaving him for dead appeared in court today Tuesday.
Rubi Ann Martinez, who also goes by Ruby Ann Ajcalon, entered not guilty pleas to charges of felony gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and drunken driving.
Bail was set at $100,000 in the case but she is being held without bail on a probation violation charge.
Martinez, 32, and three others, including one adult and two juvenile girls, were in the cab of her orange 1993 GMC extended-cab pickup on on Dec. 22 when the death occurred, according to new details about the case released by the CHP.
The identity of the second adult in the pickup was being withheld until investigators decide whether to seek charges against the person in connection with the death of Enrique Ramirez Alvarez, CHP Officer Jon Sloat said.
Alvarez, a 21-year-old graduate of Windsor High School, was in the open back of the pickup and apparently fell out, Sloat said. A passing motorist spotted his body at about 1:40 a.m. in northbound 101 just north of the Mendocino Avenue onramp in Santa Rosa and alerted authorities, Sloat said.
CHP officials believe Martinez knew Alvarez had fallen out of the vehicle and "made an intentional decision not to return and assist, or call authorities, and took efforts to conceal the incident," Sloat said.
Detectives continue to investigate where Alvarez and Martinez had been the night of Dec. 21, how they knew each other and why Alvarez fell out of the truck, Sloat said.
"They're trying to retrace the steps of the people involved, including (Alvarez), the driver and the passengers," Sloat said. "They'd like to ask anyone who might have seen him or have been with them to help and piece together where they might have been going and where they had been."
Martinez had been on probation after a January conviction for creating fictitious checks and violating probation terms from a prior conviction for using a fraudulent check, court files show.
In 2002, she was sentenced to two years in state prison for receiving stolen property and failing to comply with the drug testing terms of her probation, court files show.
Anyone with information about the case can call Detective Michael Phennicie at 588-1400.
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