NEW BEDFORD — A Pawtucket man charged with fatally striking a Seekonk woman with his car in October pleaded not guilty yesterday in Superior Court to charges of motor-vehicle homicide and fleeing an accident scene.

Laudalino Camara, 50, of 626 Prospect St., remains free on $125,000 cash bail in connection with the hit-and-run accident that killed 38-year-old Maria Aguiar as she walked on Chestnut Street, in Seekonk, with her then-10-year-old daughter.

Camara, wearing slacks and a leather jacket, entered not-guilty pleas with his lawyer, James Fagan, at his side. His wife, Maria, sat in the courtroom.

Aguiar’s husband, Jose, her 16-year-old son Brian, her sisters, Linda Arruda and Maria Branco, and other relatives looked on during Camara’s brief court appearance.

Later, family members said they’re putting their faith in the judicial system, but feel no punishment will ever be severe enough.

“He has no idea what he’s done,” Branco said. “This affects our family every day. No matter how many years he gets in prison, it will never fill her shoes.”

“We just don’t want our sister to be forgotten,” Arruda said. “We don’t want her to be just a case number.”

Aguiar, of 155 Chestnut St., was walking Oct. 14 at about 6:22 p.m. with her daughter Meghan, who was riding a bicycle, when Camara allegedly sped past in his sport utility vehicle, nearly striking Meghan, prosecutors have said. When Meghan turned to warn her mother, she watched as Camara allegedly struck her mother head-on with his car, throwing her onto the SUV’s hood, breaking both her legs and tearing her aorta. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Camara allegedly continued home, greeting his wife at about 6:45 p.m.

The next day, Oct. 15, the Pawtucket and Cumberland police responded to a single-car accident on Route 95 south in Pawtucket. The police concluded that Camara’s wife allegedly twice intentionally crashed the SUV into Jersey barriers and then a light pole to try to cover up the damage from her husband’s crash the previous day.

Maria Camara’s accident is still under investigation by the state police and Pawtucket police, according to Michael J. Healey, spokesman for Rhode Island’s attorney general.

After the second crash, Laudalino Camara took the SUV to an East Providence repair shop, where he repeatedly told the body-shop owner to keep the SUV inside the garage, prosecutors said.

But on Oct. 20, a woman living near the shop spotted the damaged SUV and called the Seekonk police, who had asked the public’s help in finding the driver.

Paint chips taken from the scene and from the body shop matched those from Camara’s SUV. Also found at the body shop was a human right incisor tooth. An autopsy report showed that Aguiar was missing one tooth, a right incisor.

On Nov. 9, the police arrested Camara at his Seekonk business, American Granite, on Old Fall River Avenue.

After yesterday’s arraignment, Aguiar’s family said her death has devastated them.

“Now she has a 16-year old, an 11-year-old and a 2½-year-old who every day miss their mother,” Arruda said. “A mother is irreplaceable.”

“But we have faith in the law,” she added. “Justice will prevail here and in [heaven].”

If convicted, Camara would face a maximum of 20 years in prison on the two charges. A court hearing on pretrial motions is scheduled for March 27.

mwims@projo.com