Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita, III announces that 23 year- old Ian Diebold of 24 Enola Avenue in the Village of Kenmore pleaded guilty as charged to Vehicular Manslaughter in the Second Degree before Erie County Court Judge Kenneth F Case. This is the highest charge for which the defendant could have been convicted had he gone to trial. In other words, Diebold did not receive a so-called “plea bargain” and was instead prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. 

October 13, 2014 on Grant Street in Buffalo, an SUV driven by Diebold ran into 65 year old Them Thi La as she was unloading packages from a parked vehicle. The victim’s legs were crushed and she bled to death. These events were witnessed by the victim’s husband.

Diebold was impaired by fentanyl when he killed the victim. When questioned by the police, Diebold claimed he was on his way to purchase heroin and became distracted when he dropped his cell phone in the midst of a call to his drug dealer.   

Diebold faces up to seven years in state prison when he is sentenced on January 27, 2015 by Judge Case.

The case was successfully prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Lauren Nash, who is assigned to DA Sedita’s Vehicular Crimes Bureau.