Local News in Brief : Man Pleads Guilty to Manslaughter in Crash

A 20-year-old Canyon Country man Tuesday pleaded guilty to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter for a crash that killed an 83-year-old woman and critically injured her husband of 46 years.

In exchange, prosecutors agreed to drop one count each of felony vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs against Steven Scott Lashlee.

Lashlee was allegedly racing another car on Victory Boulevard at 60 m.p.h Feb. 26 when he slammed broadside into the passenger side of a car driven by Gerald Brackett, 78, of Reseda. Brackett was critically injured, and his wife, Doris, was killed instantly.

Lashlee also pleaded guilty to one count of perjury for having given false information to the Department of Motor Vehicles to get a second driver’s license under a false name, showing him as older.

He faces a maximum sentence of one year in County Jail instead of the 10-year state prison sentence he would have faced if convicted on the original charges.

The district attorney’s office agreed to the plea because of problems with evidence, including a blood test taken after the crash, which detected no drugs and alcohol in Lashlee’s body, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Lisa Kahn. In addition, Lashlee entered the intersection on a green light, Kahn said.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Kathryne Ann Stoltz scheduled sentencing for Oct. 4.