BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) - The driver of a minivan that crashed into a monument in front of Buffalo City Hall, killing a passenger on Thanksgiving morning, was charged Tuesday with vehicular manslaughter.
Paul Tolbert, 40, was arraigned via video from his hospital bed and ordered held without bail, Erie County District Attorney John Flynn told reporters. He faces up to seven years in prison if convicted.
Tolbert has been at Erie County Medical Center since being seriously injured in the crash that killed 34-year-old Angel Marie Cobb of Buffalo.
Flynn said evidence indicates that Tolbert was speeding and under the influence of controlled substances when the Toyota Sienna slammed into the 96-foot-tall marble monument honoring President William McKinley after crashing through two marble posts ringing the site.
Buffalo Police Capt. Jeffrey Rinaldo called it the worst car accident he’d ever seen.
The monument has about $100,000 in damage, though some of it was caused during Black Lives Matter protests earlier in the year, Rinaldo said. McKinley was assassinated on a 1901 visit to the city in western New York.
Flynn said that the accident investigation would continue and that more charges against Tolbert are possible. The initial vehicular manslaughter charge is to ensure Tolbert remains in custody, he said.
“My concern now is that he doesn’t walk out of that hospital,” the prosecutor said.
Tolbert was on parole at the time of the crash after being released from prison six months earlier, Flynn said. State records indicate he was freed May 21, 2020 after serving nearly seven years for burglary.
The name of an attorney for Tolbert could not be located Tuesday.
He is scheduled to return to court Jan. 11 for a felony hearing.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.