Sentencing Stalled in Death of Road Worker

Honoring an agreement between prosecutors and the defense, a judge Tuesday delayed the sentencing of a man convicted in the death of a highway worker and ordered an evaluation of his suitability for probation.

LeShawn Cummings pleaded no contest--the equivalent of a guilty plea in criminal matters--to involuntary manslaughter two weeks ago in a case that was initially investigated as one in a string of fatal carjackings that have plagued the San Fernando Valley.

William Edward Fliehmann, 41, of Whittier was killed in the early morning hours of April 21 when Cummings entered Fliehmann’s idling truck and drove away. Cummings told his attorney that he saw Fliehmann setting up traffic cones on Victory Boulevard in North Hollywood when he stole the truck.

Fliehmann’s body was found on the Victory Boulevard on-ramp to the southbound Hollywood Freeway. He died from massive head injuries apparently caused when he fell from the truck.

Authorities did not file murder charges against Cummings because they determined that he had no intention of harming Fliehmann and could not have foreseen the victim’s death.

Superior Court Judge Kathryne Ann Stoltz sent Cummings to the state Department of Corrections on Tuesday for a 90-day diagnostic evaluation. Two mental health professionals will examine Cummings and make a recommendation to the court.

Stoltz will have the option of sentencing Cummings to probation or to state prison for a maximum term of 4 years and 8 months during a hearing scheduled for Aug. 18.

“A probation officer already interviewed him,” said defense attorney Tamar Rachel Toister, “and the probation officer did recommend probation.”

Prosecutors agreed not to oppose the diagnostic examination, partly because Cummings pleaded no contest to both charges that had been filed against him.

The decision not to file murder charges enraged Fliehmann’s family and led them to call for reforms that would bring tougher sentences for criminals who kill innocent people.

While authorities no longer believe that Fliehmann was the victim of a carjacking, he was the fourth person to die in the San Fernando Valley in violent auto thefts in the past two months.

On the same day at about the same time Fliehmann died, an aspiring actor was gunned down in his BMW less than two miles away. Thomas Martin MacDowell was shot in the torso as he parked his car near his girlfriend’s apartment on Laurel Canyon Boulevard. Police have not arrested any suspects in that case.