SAN DIEGO -- A young woman who was 17 when she allegedly drove drunk, killing a Santee woman on her way to work, pleaded not guilty in Juvenile Court Monday to gross vehicular manslaughter and other charges.

Deputy District Attorney Lisa Moffatt argued unsuccessfully before Juvenile Court Judge Dwayne K. Moring that the girl, now 18, should be taken into custody because she posed a danger to the public.

The judge ordered the defendant to be placed under house arrest.

According to prosecutors, the girl was driving a black Ford Ranger north of State Route 125 about 6:30 a.m. last Sept. 20 when she exited the highway at Mission Gorge Road and broadsided a car driven by 53-year-old Pamela Marabeas.

Marabeas was sitting in her Ford Explorer waiting to make a left turn. She died at the scene.

The victim, a radiology technician at Scripps Mercy Hospital in Chula Vista, was on her way to a second job in Chula Vista after volunteering to work at the last minute, authorities said.

The defendant was seriously injured in the accident and was hospitalized for some time.

Minutes before the crash, the teen allegedly rear-ended a Chevrolet Cavalier in La Mesa, forcing the car off the road and into a set of utility boxes and fence.

Besides manslaughter while intoxicated, the girl is charged with auto theft, hit-and-run causing injury, hit-and-run causing property damage and misdemeanor driving without a license, Moffatt said.

The defendant -- who will be back in Juvenile Court Feb. 23 -- faces up to 11 years and six months in custody if convicted, the prosecutor said.

The girl is being tried in Juvenile Court because under state law, gross vehicular manslaughter by a minor is not a crime that can be charged as an adult, Moffatt said.