3-time drunken driver sent to jail

A plea deal between County Attorney Joel Ensey and repeat offender Laramie Seibert ended up with two charges dismissed but a year’s sentence in jail.

Siebert originally was charged with driving under the influence, circumvention of an ignition interlock device he was earlier ordered to use, and transporting an open container of alcohol.

When he pleaded no contest Aug. 23 to his third DUI, Ensey dismissed the interlock and transporting charges.

Siebert was sentenced Dec. 13 to year in jail by Judge Ben Sexton after Sexton read two letters from Mothers Against Drunk Driving over an objection from Siebert’s defense lawyer, John Leavitt of Wichita.

Sexton ordered Siebert to pay $1,903 and granted work release weekdays and every other weekend with a requirement that he submit to alcohol testing each time he returned to jail. Siebert is to pay his fine at a rate of $10 per hour worked for his father.

On the same day, Sexton revoked Siebert’s probation for a 2020 conviction of circumventing an ignition interlock and ordered him to spend six months in jail. The sentences are to run concurrently.

Siebert earlier spent four years in prison after he was convicted in McPherson County of involuntary manslaughter in the 2011 death of James Stang. Siebert was driving under the influence when his pickup crossed the centerline of US-56 near Canton and crashed into Stang’s pickup. Stang died at the scene.