Grieving mom fights to keep illegal migrant who killed her daughter in jail after making deathbed promise to dying teenager

A grieving Arkansas mom is fighting to keep the illegal migrant convicted of killing her daughter behind bars after she made a deathbed promise to the teen.

Hailey King, 18, was riding on a scooter with her friend, Osmin ‘David’ Gutierrez, in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on November 7, 2016, when a pickup truck driven by Sergio Rodriguez struck them from behind. 

Rodriguez was traveling 36mph above the speed limit when he slammed into the pair. 

The impact threw King onto the truck’s hood before she was flung headfirst onto the roadway.

She suffered catastrophic injuries, including a brain stem hemorrhage, internal and external cranial hemorrhages, a burst spleen and a lacerated liver.  

Rodriguez in 2018 pleaded guilty to manslaughter, battery and leaving the scene of the 2016 crash. 

He was sentenced to 17 years in prison, but he became eligible for parole roughly 18 months into his sentence. He’s currently being held in Washington County Jail.

Kathy Hall said her family now returns to parole hearings every two years to oppose his release.  

In her daughter’s final moments, she made a heartbreaking vow her bedside that she would ‘never stop fighting for justice.’

King left behind her two-year-old daughter, Brooklyn.

Hall recalled police arriving at her home that night and telling her she needed to come to the hospital immediately.

When she arrived, she found her daughter sitting upright with her eyes open but unresponsive.

‘I knew right when I looked at her that she was gone,’ Hall said.

Hall said she sat beside her daughter, told her how much she loved her and promised she would continue fighting for justice before King died.

Gutierrez was also critically injured in the collision. Hall said he became trapped beneath the truck as Rodriguez continued driving for more than a mile before finally stopping.

According to Hall, Gutierrez’s legs were severed in the crash, but he remained conscious.

He died two years later from a blood clot related to the injuries he suffered.

Hall also criticized how Rodriguez’s case was handled after the crash.

She said Rodriguez disappeared for three days before he was arrested and was released on bond less than an hour after being taken into custody.

Hall said her family felt Rodriguez was protected throughout the criminal proceedings while they struggled to navigate the legal process after losing their daughter.

She also claimed authorities decided not to notify US Immigration and Customs Enforcement because deporting Rodriguez could have prevented him from facing prosecution in Arkansas.

Hall said the decision left her family wrestling with an impossible choice between seeking criminal accountability and seeing Rodriguez immediately removed from the country.

She said the repeated parole hearings have prevented the family from fully moving forward.

‘As soon as the pain dulls a little bit, you have to go back through the whole thing preparing to try to keep him behind bars again,’ Hall told The American Border Story Action.

Hall said King had done nothing wrong the night she was killed and that her granddaughter has grown up without knowing her mother.

She said she intends to continue opposing Rodriguez’s release for as long as necessary.

‘I’ll never stop fighting. I’m going to do everything I can to keep my promise to her,’ Hall said.

The Daily Mail has contacted the Fayetteville Police Department and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office for comment.