A 27-year-old Eldorado man who crashed into a car carrying five teenagers — killing four of them — while allegedly driving drunk early Sunday morning is likely facing up to 50 years behind bars, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

Scott Owens would normally be looking at up to 36 years in prison for the four counts of vehicular homicide and one count of causing great bodily injury by vehicle, said Deputy District Attorney Charles Baldonado. However, because he apparently pleaded guilty to a prior drunken-driving charge in 2001, he will face an extra four years per count because of habitual offender laws, Baldonado said.

Santa Fe County Magistrate George Anaya Jr., accepted Baldonado's recommendation of a $3 million, cash-only bond for Owens at his arraignment Tuesday. Owens looked down at the table in front of him as Anaya read the charges and possible penalties against him. He told the judge he has worked at a local welding business for about eight months and has never been convicted of a felony.

Owens was at the wheel of a 1992 Jeep Cherokee that was allegedly traveling in the wrong lane of Old Las Vegas Highway just after midnight Sunday. The Jeep struck a 1992 Subaru sedan on the passenger side when the driver tried to avoid the vehicle.

Rose Simmons, 15, Julian Martinez, 16, Alyssa Trouw, 16, and Kate Klein, 16, were killed instantly. The Subaru's driver, 16-year-old Avree Koffman, was airlifted to University Hospital in Albuquerque. Koffman apparently regained consciousness Tuesday and was talking and tried to take out her feeding tube, according to a news release from her father.

"Avree is going to be OK!," the release says. "She just needs time now to heal."

A group of friends of the victims showed up at Santa Fe County Magistrate Court near the end of Owens' arraignment and were ushered out of the courtroom by two victim's advocates from the Santa Fe District Attorney's Office. Some members of the group could be heard outside the court building saying they wanted to beat up or jump Owens. One said he knew people in jail.

Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano said a member of the media called him and reported the threats. He said he must take the threats seriously and will increase patrols at the home Owens shares with his mother in Eldorado and would inform the jail of the threats.

Joey Stephens, one of the members of the group, said he and his friends came to the court expecting to see the man "that took our friends." However, Owens was arraigned by video from the jail and wasn't in the building.

Solano said investigators spent several hours searching the crash scene Monday for bottles of liquor that were rumored to be there, though they didn't find them. They did, however, find evidence that could assist the investigation, but he declined to say what it was.

Contact Jason Auslander at 986-3076 or :jauslander@sfnewmexican.com.