The question of who is to blame for last summer's drunken-driving crash that left four local teenagers dead will be at the heart of a multi-day court hearing scheduled for June.

For authorities and, indeed, much of the community as a whole, the answer to that question is Scott Owens, the 28-year-old Eldorado man charged with causing the accident by driving in the wrong lane of Old Las Vegas Highway on June 28. But new evidence in the case may lead a state District Court judge to another conclusion.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Doug Couleur and Dan Cron, Owens' attorney, filed documents late Thursday that clear the way for the preliminary hearing. At the end of the hearing — set for June 14, 15 and 16, almost exactly a year after the crash occurred — state District Judge Michael Vigil will decide if there is probable cause to make Owens stand trial on four counts of vehicular homicide and one count of causing great bodily injury by vehicle.

In the months immediately following the crash, it appeared Owens might simply accept responsibility and plead guilty. After all, there were four dead kids and an alleged wrong-way, drunken driver who had marijuana and a pipe in his car. The notion of Owens' guilt — thanks, in part, to a previous drunken-driving arrest and his smiling jail mug shot — seemed cut-and-dry.

He even had a hard time initially finding a lawyer because the mother of one of the victims in the case is an attorney for the state Public Defender's appellate division, and most of the defense lawyers in town knew and had worked with her.

Dan Cron, a longtime local criminal defense attorney known for his laid-back temperament, finally took the case with one caveat: The defense would be dictated by the truth. That is, if Cron investigated and determined that events occurred the way the Sheriff's Office said they occurred, he would work out the best possible plea for Owens he could, and that would be that.

But questions about whether the crash occurred the way authorities have said it did have surfaced repeatedly, according to sources close to the case.

Sheriff's investigators believe Owens was driving in the wrong lane and tried to turn back into his own lane too late after seeing the oncoming 1992 red Subaru sedan driven by Avree Koffman, 16. The investigators said Koffman turned to her left — into Owens' lane — to avoid a collision, and Owens' Jeep struck the passenger side of her Subaru.

Koffman's four passengers — Kate Klein, Julian Martinez, Alyssa Trouw, all 16, and Rose Simmons, 15 — died at the scene. Koffman was seriously injured but survived. Owens, whose blood-alcohol content was twice the legal driving limit, received minor injuries. Tests showed Koffman and the four other teens in her car had not been drinking that night.

The defense is not so sure the Sheriff's Office got it right. Rumors about possible highway shenanigans involving at least two teen drivers in a caravan of at least four cars that night, coupled with physical evidence found at the scene, may raise doubts about that theory, according to sources close to the case who requested anonymity.

One of the 911 calls made by a young man at the scene that night might raise questions. The relevant portion of that lengthy call to an emergency dispatcher — during which the as-yet-unidentified young man not only checks his four dead friends for a pulse, but also checks on Owens — involves a few brief seconds at the end.

During a lull in the conversation between the young man and the dispatcher, a young woman apparently approaches the young man and says something unintelligible. Sounding angry, he says, "Why'd you do that?" The young woman, clearly upset, says, "I don't know." The next exchange is muffled. Another male voice in the background then asks, "Did you swerve?"

The bottom-line question is whether Owens was actually driving on the wrong side of the road, sources involved with the case said. If he wasn't — and teen witnesses in at least three other cars traveling in the caravan with Koffman's red Subaru reportedly haven't been consistent on that point — then Owens, despite a blood-alcohol content of 0.16, may not be held responsible for the crash.

In other words, the defense could argue that the accident might have occurred the same way regardless of whether Owens was sober or drunk — an echo of a notorious Santa Fe case in the mid-1980s in which a drunken driver was found not responsible for the death of three teens.

At the preliminary hearing for Owens, both sides likely will stipulate to certain facts in the case, such as Owens' blood-alcohol content, to save time. However, most, if not all, of the evidence gathered by both sides is likely to be presented at the hearing — unlike typical preliminary hearings where the state presents a minimal amount of evidence and the defense usually doesn't present a defense at all.

Every teenager in the caravan of at least four cars heading out from Santa Fe to Eldorado that night is likely to testify in June, as well as experts hired by both sides. Cron has hired an outside crash reconstructionist. Santa Fe County sheriff's investigators did not do their own reconstruction of the accident. It is not clear if the state has hired a reconstructionist.

The debate about Owens' responsibility is eerily similar to the issues that surrounded another community-galvanizing crash that occurred in Santa Fe nearly 25 years ago.

In that case, Moises Gonzales, then 22, was driving his 1969 Ford pickup down Cerrillos Road in August 1985 with a breath-alcohol content of 0.16. A 1981 Ford Escort driven by Gail Leyba, 17, pulled out from the old Yucca Drive-In Theater in front of him, and Gonzales broadsided the car, killing Leyba, Dorine Montoya, 17, and DeAnza Allocca, 16. An 18-year-old boy survived the crash.

During a preliminary hearing held four months after the crash, two accident reconstructionists hired by then-District Attorney Chet Walter testified that Gonzales could not have avoided the crash because Leyba pulled out in front of him. One of the experts said the crash was Leyba's fault. The prosecutor in that hearing was then-Chief Deputy District Attorney Charles Baldonado, who, along with Couleur, now serves as chief deputies to current District Attorney Angela "Spence" Pacheco.

The homicide charges against Gonzales were dropped and his case was remanded to Santa Fe County Magistrate Court, where Couleur, then an assistant district attorney, prosecuted Gonzales for drunken driving. Gonzales later pleaded guilty to driving drunk in that case.

Years later, in July 2005, Gonzales pleaded guilty to his eighth DWI, online court records state.

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