SHEPHERDSVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A driver convicted of hitting and killing a man helping a stranded friend on I-65 is headed to prison.
Robert Whitaker, 53, was sentenced to 15 years in a Bullitt County courtroom on Friday for second-degree manslaughter, tampering with physical evidence, leaving the scene of an accident and possession of a controlled substance (opiates).
Billy Dezern, 21, was killed in November 2016 as he and his father were on the side of the interstate helping his brother's girlfriend.
"He picked up immediately and said he would be there in 15 minutes, and he was not a minute late," Heaven Hernandez said during an interview in 2016.
The family told WDRB News at the time that the two had opened the hood of her car when a speeding pickup veered into both men. Dezern died instantly. His father was critically injured. Whitaker left the scene but was later tracked down by police.
"Billy's body knocked my brother out, so he was in the hospital for several days and didn't even know Billy was gone, and then we had to tell him," said Bonnie Dezern, Billy's aunt.
She added that justice was not served by Whitaker's sentence.
"He is only going to serve 20 percent of that 15 years," she said. "So we're looking at him doing a three-year sentence for taking a life and damaging my brother for the rest of his life. I would have liked to see him charged with exactly what he did, and that is murdering my nephew. What kind of message is that sending to people who make that choice to get behind the wheel of a car under the influence? That there is really not a big consequence? We are suffering. We feel like we have been given the life sentence."
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