A Hermosa Beach woman accused of killing a 65-year-old man with her car nearly three years ago pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder Monday.

A Los Angles Superior Court judge initially deemed Marie Elise West, 37, mentally incompetent to stand trial for allegedly running down and killing Jesus Plascencia in Van Nuys during the early morning of Sept. 1, 2000, because of his ethnicity.

Judge Michael S. Luros ordered that West be sent to Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino, based on reports written by the prosecutor’s and defendant’s psychiatrists, both of whom were in agreement of West’s mental condition.

Everything changed for West last Friday when the court modified its ruling and now considers her competent to return to court for the proceedings, said Deputy District Attorney Scott Millington.

Several days after the crime, Los Angles Deputy District Attorney Jacquelyn Lacey filed a special circumstance of hate crime to the murder charge, meaning prosecutors can seek the death penalty since they claim the crime was racially motivated.

According to witnesses, West ran down Plascencia with her Volvo as the elderly man walked out of a Western Bagel and into the parking lot near the corner of Stagg Street and Sepulveda Boulevard. West dragged the man 30 yards out of the parking lot and into the intersection where officers eventually found his body.

After killing Plascencia, West drove back into the parking lot and bought a bagel after making ethnic slurs and commenting on the dead “road kill” in the street.

Plascencia worked as a busboy for Weiler’s Deli in Van Nuys for 20 years. His daily routine began early in the morning, around 4 a.m. when he would pick up bagels for the deli owner at Western Bagel.

One co-worker thought of Plascencia as a well-loved man within his community.

“Jesus was one of the kindest, gentlest and nicest men,” she said. “Everyone here just really thought so highly of him.”

Hermosa Beach resident Al Bowman is West’s husband and said she is a loving wife with a long history of mental illness. Bowman said West has been in and out of hospitals several times for a chemical imbalance, and she had been taking 17 different medications prior to the crime.

“People don’t know that my wife tried to get help a few days before all of this happened,” explained Bowman. “The hospital turned her away because she was an ex-patient.”

West will return to court May 22 to determine whether there is enough evidence to move forward with the trial.