Despite initially saying she wanted to plead guilty in connection to a May 2009 crash that killed her friend, a Battle Ground woman plans to go to trial in April on a vehicular homicide charge.

Shastina M. Lapping, 24, pleaded not guilty to the charge Wednesday in Clark County Superior Court. She is accused of being intoxicated at the time of the May 9 crash that fatally injured her friend, Emily Buck, 25, also of Battle Ground.

Superior Court Judge John Nichols set trial for April 5.

Lapping’s arraignment was postponed after she expressed interest in pleading guilty. But she changed her mind and said she wanted to move forward with setting a trial, said Deputy Prosecutor Jim David.

Lapping has been allowed supervised release while the case is pending.

Prosecutors allege that about 1 a.m. on that Saturday, Lapping was driving a Buick in the 17500 block of Northeast 142nd Avenue when she lost control. The Buick approached a curve, went off the road, hit a tree and flipped.

According to an affidavit, a sample taken at the hospital showed Lapping had a blood-alcohol content of 0.13 an hour and a half after the crash. In Washington, the legal limit is 0.08.

When questioned by deputies, Lapping said she, Buck and several other friends had been drinking at the Prairie Bar & Grill in Brush Prairie. She told deputies she’d had three shots of hard liquor and one beer, according to the affidavit.

A traffic investigation later showed Lapping was driving 78 mph in a 50 mph zone when she lost control of her vehicle, according to court records.

Buck suffered blunt force injuries and died in a hospital July 3, nearly two months after the crash.

Lapping was treated and released the morning of the crash from Southwest Washington Medical Center.

In November, prosecutors issued a summons for Lapping to appear in court on suspicion of vehicular homicide while under the influence of an intoxicating liquor.

According to her Facebook page, Lapping works two jobs at a supermarket meat counter and as a dental assistant, and she wrote that she is expecting her first child. She mentioned the crash in her public “About Me” category, saying it’s been the “hardest time of my life.”

“For everyone that has been effected (sic) in this — all of Emily’s family, my family and all of our friends — I am truly so sorry,” Lapping wrote. “I pray for you also every day. I would do anything to go back and change the past.”

Laura McVicker: 360-735-4516 or laura.mcvicker@columbian.com.

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