Who is Rosali Fernandez-Cruz? Illegal immigrant got 1 year jail for killing college student in hit-and-run

Rosali Fernandez-Cruz, an illegal immigrant, pleaded guilty to killing a South Carolina college student in a hit-and-run case. He was sentenced to one year in jail, Fox News reported.

Rosali Fernandez-Cruz was accused of failing to yield and hitting the college student who was riding a motorcycle. (X/@ImmigrantCrimes, X/@DC_Draino)

Fernandez-Cruz will be released from jail next year, after being admitted to the state Department of Corrections on August 14, 2025. His estimated date of release to be March 2, 2026. The illegal immigrant pleaded guilty to hit-and-run resulting in death, the most serious charge he was facing, as per what Robert Kittle, communications director for the state attorney general’s office, told Fox News.

“The judge decided the sentence, which was one year,” he reportedly said.

Who is Rosali Fernandez-Cruz?

Fernandez-Cruz is an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, who was involved in the hit-and-run that claimed the life of 21-year-old Nathaniel Baker on April 2. Baker was a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and a junior at the University of South Carolina.

The immigrant was accused of failing to yield and hitting Baker, who was riding a motorcycle. Then, he reportedly fled the scene. He was detained on the1100 block of Greene Street. Two male passengers were with him at the time of the collision and they also ran from the scene, Columbia Police shared. However, no charges were pending against them.

Police said that Fernandez-Cruz was wanted by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) even before the accident, as per Fox News. A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) source told the publication that the man had been arrested by US Border Patrol in Hidalgo, Texas, on December 24, 2016 itself.

Almost two years later, in September 2018, an immigration judge from Charlotte, North Carolina, ordered that he be deported to El Salvador. Following his release, ICE will take Fernandez-Cruz into custody in order to begin deportation proceedings.

The one-year sentence he’s currently facing, was reportedly imposed after consulting with the family. “They did not want this to be politicized or highly publicized,” Kittle told Fox News, adding, “They were in agreement with the guilty plea and sentence.”