FARMINGTON - Domingos Medeiros, the Massachusetts driver charged with leaving the scene of a deadly wreck in New Vineyard on Jan. 16, pleaded not guilty to the charge in front of Justice Michaela Murphy on Monday.

Medeiros, 48, has been free on bail after turning himself in to Maine authorities Jan. 23, seven days after the accident. He was charged with leaving the scene of an accident where police say 12-foot-long hemlock beams fell from his trailer and into a car driven by Stephen McKenney. McKenney, 55, of New Portland, died in the accident.

Medeiros and his wife were in Maine on Jan. 16 to pick up beams in Kingfield that had been cut incorrectly and take them back to Medeiros' business, Hardpine Inc. in Fall River, Mass., police said.

As they traveled south about three miles from the Farmington town line, the beams fell from the trailer and into the path of McKenney's northbound car and of another vehicle driven by Katherine Jones. McKenney died at the scene when a beam fell through his windshield. Jones, 43, and her passenger suffered minor injuries, police added.

Medeiros' lawyer, Walter McKee of Augusta, in January said his client did not know he had been involved in an accident. Since a charge of leaving the scene of an accident requires that the driver knows his or her vehicle has been involved, he believed the Route 27 fatality was an accident, not a crime.