IDAHO FALLS — More than a year after driving drunk and killing six people in a crash on U.S. Highway 20 near the Lindsay Boulevard exit in Idaho Falls, the defendant was sentenced Tuesday in the Bonneville County Courthouse.
Luis David Garcia-Diaz, 27, of Rigby, received the maximum sentence under his amended plea agreement. District Judge Dane Watkins Jr. sentenced him to six years fixed and nine years indeterminate on two counts of vehicular manslaughter, with the sentences running consecutively for a maximum of 30 years in state prison.
According to the terms of the plea agreement, the state agreed to dismiss four felony counts of vehicular manslaughter and four additional felony charges in exchange for Garcia-Diaz pleading guilty to two vehicular manslaughter charges and paying full restitution for all charged and uncharged crimes.
According to court records, the defendant sought a sentence of three years fixed and four years indeterminate to be served concurrently, for a total of up to seven years in state prison.
Watkins also levied Garcia-Diaz fees totaling $15,591. The judge ruled that restitution costs would be determined within 30 days.
According to court documents, Garcia-Diaz was driving a Dodge Ram east on May 18, 2024, when he crossed the center line and entered the westbound lanes, colliding head-on with a Chevrolet Express van carrying 14 people. He had a blood alcohol level of 0.192 percent when his truck collided with the van. The legal limit is 0.08%.
The victims are Abel Mejia Martinez, 43, Pedro Manuel Alcantar Mejia, 26, Brandon Ponce Gallegos, 24, Jose Guadalupe Sanchez Medina, 20, Luis Enrique Sereno Perez, 32, and Javier Gomez Alcantar, 36.
According to a report from Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, all of the passengers in the van were Mexican agricultural workers with H-2A Temporary Agricultural Worker visas.
