Nernberg Court proceedings are underway for the Agoura Hills teenagers accused of contributing to the October overdose death of Thousand Oaks High School senior Griffen Kramer.

On Jan. 19, David Nernberg, 19, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Los Angeles County Superior Court to involuntary manslaughter, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison. Nernberg was represented in court by public defender Eleanor Schneir.

According to police, Kramer, Nernberg and 17-year-old Alex Van Dyke of Oak Park drove in a car Oct. 29 to a cul-de-sac near Sumac Park in Agoura Hills, where Kramer injected heroin he purchased earlier in the day.

Kramer, the son of former NFL quarterback Erik Kramer of Agoura Hills, became visibly ill and unresponsive and was taken by Nernberg to his Agoura home, police said. Nernberg left him there and went to a party, and by morning Kramer was dead. The Los Angeles County coroner’s office listed Kramer’s cause of death as acute morphine heroin toxicity.

“All they had to do was call 911 and Griffen would be alive,” Sgt. Richard Biddle, the lead homicide investigator on the case, told the Acorn in an earlier interview.

Also in court last Thursday was Agoura Hills resident Corey Baumann, 20. He is also being charged in connection with the death.

Originally accused by police of involuntary manslaughter for selling Kramer his fatal dose of heroin, Baumann is no longer facing that charge after the district attorney’s office chose not to pursue it.

Biddle said the D.A. likely felt they could not prove the charge “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

“We can’t truly establish (Baumann) was the one who supplied Griffen with the heroin,” Biddle told the Acorn this week. “We have circumstantial evidence that he was, but we also have evidence that he wasn’t.”

A friend of the Baumann family who asked to remain anonymous told the Acorn that Kramer found the heroin on his own and that neither Baumann nor Nernberg sold him the drug.

Baumann, whose home, along with five others, was raided by police on Nov. 10, pleaded not guilty Thursday to one count each of possessing for sale methamphetamine, Ecstacy, heroin and marijuana. Baumann was represented by private criminal defense attorney Robert Helfend.

Both Nernberg and Baumann are due back in court March 1 for a preliminary hearing.

Larry Brown, Nernberg’s Liberty Canyon neighbor, wrote to Deputy District Attorney Mara McIlvane and called the charge of involuntary manslaughter against Nernberg a “grossly exaggerated crime.”

Brown said Nernberg displayed “the bad judgment of a frightened teenager who did not provide drugs and had no knowledge of how to handle a situation involving a known drug addict.”

Nernberg and Baumann have been free on bond. Van Dyke was released from Sylmar Juvenile Hall into the custody of his parents.

Details of his case are not available to the public because he is a juvenile.