Erie County District Attorney, Frank A. Sedita, III announces that 33 year- old Wayne Ware of Buffalo pleaded guilty before Acting State Supreme Court Justice John L. Michalski to one count of Vehicular Manslaughter in the Second Degree.  This is a higher charge than those initially filed and the highest charge for which Ware could have been convicted had he gone to trial.

On February 22, 2015, while his ability to operate a motor vehicle was impaired by drugs, he crossed over the double yellow lines on Clinton Street in the Town of West Seneca and seriously injured 82 year-old August Taglienti who was driving in the opposite direction.  Mr. Taglienti died from his injuries two months later, thereby meriting the higher charge.

Ware faces a maximum sentence of seven years in state prison when he is sentenced on December 1, 2015 at 9:30 am before Justice Michalski.

The case was successfully prosecuted by Christopher M. McCarthy, who is assigned to DA Sedita’s Vehicular Crimes Bureau. DA Sedita also credited the efforts of the West Seneca Police Department Accident Investigation Unit, adding: “This case again demonstrates how this office will aggressively prosecute when a professionally conducted police investigation provides us with sufficient evidence to prove a crime was committed. Indeed, this is the third case in the course of the last week-and-a-half (see People v. Ashley Sawicki and People v. Daniel Demont) where a motorist, responsible for the death of another, was prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, without the benefit of a so-called plea bargain.