Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita, III announced that 22 year-old Ashley Sawicki of 3907 Harvard Street in the Town of Hamburg pleaded guilty, as charged, to Leaving the Scene of Incident without Reporting, Resulting in a Fatality before Erie County Court Judge Sheila A. DiTullio.

This is the highest charge for which the defendant could have been convicted had she gone to trial. Sawicki did not receive a so-called “plea bargain” and was instead prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Sawicki admitted that while driving her vehicle on July 15, 2014 at approximately 12:30 a.m. on Big Tree Road in the Town of Hamburg, she struck and killed pedestrian Jennifer Martello and, knowing that she had struck and likely injured another person, fled the scene and failed to report the collision.

Sawicki faces a maximum sentence of seven years in state prison when she is sentenced on November 10, 2015 at 9:30 a.m. before Judge DiTullio. 

The case was successfully prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Kelley A. Omel, Chief of DA Sedita’s Vehicular Crimes Bureau.