A man is headed to prison for decades after he struck two South Carolina boys who were riding bicycles in front of their parents, even though he had consumed 15 beers.
Eri Otoniel Roblero Perez, 31, pleaded guilty to two counts of driving under the influence resulting in death for killing 8‑year‑old Mikhail’lee Smith and 12‑year‑old Dereon Robinson. On Monday, a judge sentenced Roblero Perez to 40 years behind bars, according to court records.
The crash occurred on April 12 on Ashville Highway in Spartanburg County. Mikhail’lee and Dereon, close friends, were riding their bikes on the sidewalk while their parents followed in a car. At the same time, Roblero Perez was traveling eastward in a Honda Accord on the same highway.
“Dereon’s last words to me was ‘Go ahead Mom, I love you,’” recalled his mother, Megan Wilson, in an interview with local NBC affiliate WYFF. Suddenly, the Honda barreled over Dereon and Mikhail’lee, then slammed into a fence and a tree as Wilson watched in horror. She rushed to her son and his friend but could do little to save them.
“I might have been granted the one thing that most parents aren’t granted, which is to hold my son in that last moment and give him a kiss and be able to say my prayers and to be with him,” she told WYFF. Paramedics rushed the victims to the hospital, where they later died.
Police noted that Roblero Perez was unsteady on his feet and discovered several open beer containers in the car. He later told investigators he had drunk 15 beers the night before and eight more the next morning to quell a hangover. He claimed he was driving a family member to a laundromat when the crash happened. His blood‑alcohol content measured 0.264,more than three times the legal limit.
“This is a parent’s worst nightmare,when you see children die like this because of someone’s lawlessness and total disregard for those around him,” Solicitor Barry Barnette said to WYFF.
Wilson said simple routines, like gathering for dinner, have become painful. “Both of them were special. They didn’t deserve this by any means. When I call for dinner, it makes it a little bit harder because I’m used to calling four names instead of three,” she told the TV station. “For my son to be killed doing the one thing that he loved and for me to have to watch it, and my 10‑year‑old. It’s what no mother wants.”
Roblero Perez, a Mexican national who was in the country illegally, will be deported after he serves his prison sentence.
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