Wrong-way driver pleads guilty to killing a man on a Charlotte road
A wrong-way driver pleaded guilty to killing a man on a Charlotte road and was sentenced to prison, the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office said Friday.
Superior Court Judge William Stetzer sentenced 32-year-old Leonardo Hernandez Perez to 20 to 33 months in prison, after Hernandez pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, according to a District Attorney’s Office news release.
Antonio Darnell Harris, 34, was standing in the median in the 1100 block of West Sugar Creek Road around 10:15 p.m. Sept. 1, 2024, when the driver of a Silverado pickup truck hit him, according to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department news release at the time. Harris died at a hospital, police said.
Harris was unresponsive when officers arrived and found him lying partially in the median in the northbound lanes, police said. MEDIC took Harris to Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center.
Police initially arrested Perez on charges of felony death by vehicle, felony hit-and-run causing death, driving with no operator’s license, and reckless driving, The Charlotte Observer reported at the time.