PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — A man who pleaded guilty last month to running away after he hit a Pinellas County Sheriff’s deputy two years ago at a construction site has learned his sentence.

Juan Molina-Salles, 34, was sentenced Tuesday to 12 years in prison minus time served, which means he will spend nearly a decade more in jail.

Molina-Salles entered the plea last month just days before his trial was supposed to start.

Deputy Michael Hartwick, 51, was killed when he was hit by a front-end loader being driven by Molina-Salles in September 2022. It happened at night on Interstate 275 near Roosevelt Boulevard. 

According to Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, Molina-Salles drove to a parking area after hitting Hartwick, parked the front-end loader and then took off his helmet and vest. Gualtieri said Vasquez handed his gear to another worker, said he had just "killed a deputy" and left the scene. 

Molina-Salles was caught after a search that lasted about eight hours.

He faced a second-degree felony charge of leaving the scene of an accident with death.

He pleaded guilty with the understanding that a judge would not impose a sentence of more than 20 years in prison, according to our newsgathering partners at the Tampa Bay Times.

Gualtieri said after the arrest that Molina-Salles entered the country illegally in October of 2021 in Eagle Pass, Texas, was caught at the border and sent back to Mexico, came back through the Texas border, and had been in the Bay area since March 2022, months before the crash.