Plea Entered in Truck-Theft Death : Courts: Man pleads no contest to involuntary manslaughter. A highway worker was killed during the incident.

In a move designed to help him avoid a lengthy state prison term, a Los Angeles man pleaded no contest Tuesday to an involuntary manslaughter charge stemming from an early morning truck theft that led to the death of a highway worker two weeks ago.

LeShawn Cummings’ plea--the equivalent of a guilty plea in criminal proceedings--makes him eligible for a maximum sentence of four years and eight months in state prison for his role in the April 21 death of William Edward Fliehmann.

But lawyers on both sides have agreed that Cummings will initially be sent to state prison for a 90-day diagnostic evaluation. Defense attorney Tamar Rachel Toister said that after the evaluation she plans to ask for probation because Cummings has no prior felony convictions and he had no intention of killing Fliehmann.

“The fact that someone died is an accident,” Toister said.

Cummings, 29, stared straight ahead and appeared to wipe away several tears as he made his plea during a short proceeding before Municipal Judge Robert L. Swasey.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard F. Walmark declined to comment on Cummings’ chance for probation.

“There were no deals whatsoever,” he said. “It was an open plea,” meaning that the sentencing judge will not be restricted by a plea bargain.

Fliehmann, a 41-year-old Whittier man, was setting up traffic cones on Victory Boulevard when his truck was stolen. His body was found on the Victory Boulevard on-ramp to the southbound Hollywood Freeway. The cause of death was head trauma that he apparently suffered when he fell from his truck. Investigators have speculated that Fliehmann jumped onto the truck.

Cummings told investigators that he was looking for a ride to Hollywood when he found Fliehmann’s truck with the engine running. Cummings got into the vehicle after he saw Fliehmann setting up the cones down the road, Toister said.

“There’s no evidence to show that there was any force or fear in terms of taking the vehicle,” Walmark said, adding that Cummings probably did not even know that someone had been killed during the auto theft.

Cummings was arrested in Hollywood about 12 hours after the incident after he attempted to sell the truck’s battery to several people.

Prosecutors enraged the victim’s family when they declined to file murder charges after determining that Fliehmann did not die at the hands of a carjacker and that Cummings did not exhibit “a conscious disregard for human life.”

“We’re still upset with it,” said Mike McCaskell, Fliehmann’s brother-in-law.

McCaskell and other relatives called on the district attorney’s office to file murder charges. They have also attempted to bring federal prosecutors into the case, but they have had little luck convincing anyone that Cummings should be prosecuted for violating Fliehmann’s civil rights.

“We don’t want this guy to get off, but we don’t want other people to get off either,” McCaskell said.

Prosecutors said that if the auto theft had been accomplished by violence or the threat of force, it would have been considered a robbery and Cummings could have been charged with first-degree murder, which carries a mandatory penalty of 25 years to life in state prison.

California law states that defendants are liable for murder when someone dies for any reason during the commission of certain serious felonies, but auto theft is not one of those crimes.

Cummings, who is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail, is expected to be sent to the state Department of Corrections for his evaluation during his next court appearance on May 18.