Illegal immigrant quietly handed slap-on-the-wrist sentence for hit-and-run that killed University of South Carolina student
A hit‑and‑run in Columbia, South Carolina, killed 21‑year‑old Nathaniel Baker, a junior at the University of South Carolina, and the driver was a 24‑year‑old illegal immigrant from El Salvador. In August, the driver, Rosali Fernandez‑Cruz, pleaded guilty to the most serious charge of hit‑and‑run resulting in death and received a one‑year prison sentence at Kirkland Correctional Institution.
The case drew national attention, but the judge’s sentence was quietly set after the victim’s family asked to keep the matter private. According to a spokesperson for Attorney General Alan Wilson, the family forgave Fernandez‑Cruz and did not want the case politicized. They were consulted before the court handed down the year‑long term.
Fernandez‑Cruz had already served 131 days when the court sent the rest of his plea‑in‑conjunction with the real jail time. Fatal hit‑and‑runs in South Carolina can carry up to 25 years, but he will be released on March 2, 2026, if the court’s decision stands. Whether he will be deported to El Salvador after his release is still uncertain.
The incident began when Fernandez‑Cruz was riding a pickup truck near the university campus and failed to yield to Baker, who was on a motorcycle. The driver was said to be without a driver’s license, fled the scene, and abandoned his vehicle. Police later located him after matching his name with the National Crime Information Center database. He was already on ICE’s radar, having been on the run from U.S. immigration enforcement since 2018.
Earlier in his travel history, Fernandez‑Cruz was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol in Texas in 2016, found to be a non‑citizen, and later deported by a North Carolina immigration judge in 2018. The charges against him included hit‑and‑run resulting in death, failure to provide information and render aid, failure to yield, and driving without a license. He pleaded guilty only to the charge of causing death; the other counts were dismissed.
After his release, it remains unclear whether he will be deported. The Department of Homeland Security and ICE have not yet responded to requests for comment.
Source: New York Post
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