SC man convicted in 2019 fatal hit-and-run to be deported following prison sentence
A Jasper County General Sessions Court jury convicted a Hardeeville man Wednesday in a 2019 hit-and-run that killed his “acquaintance,” according to a press release from the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office.
Osman Benitez, 33, of Hardeeville, was charged with hit-and-run with death resulting after Yobani Morales Roblero was killed in October 2019, the press release said.
Judge Bentley Price handed down the four-year sentence Thursday morning at the Jasper County courthouse. Benitez will then return to Honduras.
On Oct. 26, 2019, the Hardeeville Police Department responded to Young Street and Paynesville Road to find Roblero “trapped beneath” a car registered to Benitez, the press release said.
They did not find a driver at the scene, according to the press release. A witness told police that Benitez and Roblero had been drinking together before the incident, according to the release.
The two were also seen together on surveillance footage several hours before the incident at a nearby gas station. Surveillance footage from another business caught Roblero’s car leaving Benitez’s home around 4:15 a.m., followed by Benitez’s car, which “sped by” the car in a no-passing zone, the press release said.
A witness reported arguing with Benitez before getting in Roblero’s car. Benitez then began “chasing them,” the press release said. Roblero stopped the car and both men got out. The witness said he ran away and did not see the crash.
When the witness returned “a short time later,” the press release said, he saw Roblero’s body beneath the car.
Mary Jordan Lempesis from the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office said Benitez’s actions were “extremely reckless.”
“Unfortunately, we might never know precisely what transpired on the night Yobani Roblero was killed, but the jury’s verdict speaks the truth and provides a measure of justice for his unnecessary death,” Lempesis said.
The incident was not an “intentional act,” Carolyn Carmody, Benitez’s defense attorney, said. Her client did not call 911 because he was “in a foreign country and he was scared,” she said. If her client had access to an interpreter, Carmody said, his case “would have been different.”
Roblero’s 17-year-old son made a statement via a translator addressing the court where he explained he is now “like a father” to his younger siblings.
“I’m fighting for them to eat and go to school,” the 17-year-old said. “I had a dream to become somebody ... It’s not easy losing a father, someone you love.”
Roblero’s sister, Sarah Morales, also spoke in court via a translator and said it has been hard losing a brother. Their father cries every day for his son, she said.
Benitez, who also used a translator, asked for forgiveness from Roblero’s family and and said he didn’t intend to hurt anyone.
This story was originally published December 9, 2021 at 8:38 PM.
