Driver pleads guilty in hit-and-run that killed newlywed

July 12, 2017

Hannah Patrick,

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The man accused of a hit-and-run death on Shipyard Blvd. in January pleaded guilty this morning.

Jamell Roland, who was arrested nearly a month after the crash, pleaded guilty to felony hit and run for the death of April Daugherty. Roland entered a plea deal to have his habitual felon charge dropped.

Almost six months since Daugherty was hit and killed while riding her bike on Shipyard Boulevard, her husband Ryan Schoolcraft anxiously watched as the man who drove off that night faced a judge.

“I didn’t want to at all,” Schoolcraft said. “I know he kept looking over. I couldn’t stop staring over there.”

Jamell Roland pleaded guilty to felony hit and run.

“My prayers go to her and her family, sir,” Roland told the judge in court.

Schoolcraft said it was hard to sit through.

“Just knowing the fact that he hit her and kept going and didn’t stay there,” Schoolcraft said. “I mean I don’t know what was going through his head.”

Schoolcraft said he did not get the closure he was looking for.

“He admitted to it, but I think he admitted to it just to get it out of the way,” Schoolcraft said.

Schoolcraft said he and Daugherty’s family are outraged that Roland was only sentenced to two and a half to almost four years in prison.

“He could come down here and just hit somebody with his car and take somebody’s life and only get three years for it.”

Schoolcraft said Roland might have admitted to the crime, but his wife did not get justice.

“I’m mad you didn’t stop, but I mean you took my wife,” Schoolcraft said. “You took my wife from me. I’ll never see her again.”

In the meantime, Schoolcraft still wears his wedding ring and a necklace he had made for his wife.

“It’s one of her fingerprints, and on the back I’ve got her initials and my initials, because she never got her name changed. A.M.D.S. for April Marie Daugherty Schoolcraft, and then it’s got her birthday and then January 20,” Schoolcraft said.