NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — A man pleaded guilty in a deadly 2011 hit-and-run in the Bronx, in a deal that came just after prosecutors were able to piece together the fatal facts.
As CBS 2’s John Slattery reported Monday, the heartache remains for the family of the victim – Josbel Rivera, 23 — who was killed while crossing Mosholu Parkway on Dec. 26, 2011.
The driver who struck him – Mitchum Williams, now 30 – will now do prison time after a plea deal in the fatal hit-and-run. He had been out of custody on bail.
Police determined that 1999 Suzuki Vitara that struck and killed Rivera was torched two days later. Surveillance video showed that after the car was parked by a man on Review Place at West 238th Street in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx, the vehicle is seen bursting into flames.
Williams told the court he’d thought he hit a deer. The victim’s brother didn’t buy it.
“If you hit a deer, you don’t go burn your car,” said Jaasiel Rivera.
It was eight months later when Williams turned himself in to police for the deadly hit and run.
In addressing the court after pleading guilty, Williams turned to apologize the Rivera family.
But the victim’s mother, Belkys Rivera, said through an interpreter that she could not listen to what Williams said to the family.
“All I could think is the moment in which my son fell,” Rivera said through the interpreter.
Under the plea agreement, Williams will get one and a half to four years in prison when he is sentenced next month. The family had been hoping for a longer sentence.
“Four years is not a lot of time,” Jaasiel Rivera said, “but at least it’s something to close to this case.”
Williams is scheduled to be formally sentenced April 14.
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