Dustin Hegner Royce was hurrying away from a “road-rage” altercation last fall when he ran a red light at the intersection of Grand Avenue and West Seventh in St. Paul.

That’s when he felt his vehicle “hit something,” the 29-year-old said from the witness stand inside a Ramsey County courtroom Monday morning.

“Did you know what you hit?” Hegner Royce’s attorney, Paul Baertschi, asked him during the plea hearing.

“At the time, I had a feeling,” Hegner Royce said, pausing. “I didn’t know, but I knew I hit something.”

Panicked, Hegner Royce said he didn’t stop to investigate what he struck. Instead he took off toward Keenan’s Bar, where he knew his mother was working.

“And … (you knew) it could have been a person,” Baertschi continued.

“Yes, sir,” Hegner Royce responded.

Hegner Royce learned from media reports in the days following the collision that he had, in fact, hit a person.

Jose Hernandez Solano was riding his bike home from his job as a dishwasher at Brasa Rotisserie during the early morning hours of Nov. 26 when he was struck by the Hyundai Santa Fe Hegner Royce was driving. The car belongs to his mother.

Officers who responded to the scene found the 52-year-old lying motionless in the intersection.

He died from his injuries about a week and a half later.

Hernandez Solano had been wearing a helmet and his bike was equipped with a light.

‘I JUST PANICKED’

Hegner Royce admitted to causing and fleeing from the deadly collision in court Monday, when he pleaded guilty to one count of criminal vehicular homicide.

The courtroom was full of his family and friends, some of whom cried as he at times tearfully recounted his actions that night.

His mom, who is charged with aiding her son after the fact, listened from the back row. She kept her face buried in her hands as she waited for the proceedings to start.

Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Lee Odion Atakpu pushed Hegner Royce to explain why he didn’t get out to see if someone was hurt.

“Did you slow down or make any attempt to stop?” Atakpu asked.

“No, sir,” Hegner Royce replied. “I just panicked. I was scared. I regret it. I really do wish I would have stopped … I have no idea why I didn’t … I just panicked.”

DEFENDANT SOUGHT MOM AFTER STRIKING CYCLIST

After the collision, Hegner Royce admitted that he fled to Keenan’s bar for help, where his mom was bartending.

Authorities say Abbey Rose Hegner left her shift immediately, telling her boss his son’s girlfriend was suicidal.

She followed her son in another vehicle to his workplace in South St. Paul, Hegner Royce said Monday. Then he left his car there and drove away with his mom, Hegner Royce continued.

“Did you have anything to do with what happened to the car afterward?” his attorney, Baertschi, asked him.

“No, sir,” Hegner Royce said.

Police have been unable to locate the vehicle, Atakpu said Monday. He added that the Hyundai Santa Fe seems to have “disappeared.”

INVESTIGATION TOOK MONTHS

Authorities spent months investigating the hit-and-run before Hegner Royce and his mom were charged this past March.

They were initially arrested in December but both were released shortly thereafter.

Hegner denied any involvement in the incident at the time and told officers she sold her Hyundai Santa Fe four days before the crash to an “unknown Mexican or Somali male,” court documents say.

She was also reportedly overheard in a recorded jailhouse phone conversation telling someone that the police didn’t have any evidence in the case, particularly the suspect’s vehicle.

Previously, Hegner Royce told officers he had no memory of being at a Holiday near the crime scene that night, despite video footage placing him at the gas station, nor could he recall picking up his mother.

He admitted Monday that he lied. He said he stopped at the gas station en route to a bar that night for a few drinks after getting in a fight with his girlfriend. He needed a lighter to light a cigarette, he said. There, he ran into a man who’d recently been involved in a robbery at his aunt’s house, prompting Hegner Royce to hop back in his car and speed away so the man couldn’t follow him, he said.

A few minutes later, he got into an altercation with another vehicle that was fueled by “road rage,” Hegner Royce said.

He was fleeing that situation when he ran the red light and struck Hernandez Solano, he told the court.

He added that he had only one drink at his girlfriend’s house before the crash and was not intoxicated at the time.

“You don’t have any dispute that what happened to Mr. Hernandez was because of you (though),” Atakpu asked him during the hearing.

“No, sir,” Hegner Royce answered.

FACES UP TO FIVE YEARS IN PRISON

For his plea, the state agreed to dismiss a second count of criminal vehicular homicide previously facing Hegner Royce. Prosecutors also agreed to not ask the judge to sentence him to a longer prison term than is recommended by Minnesota’s sentencing guidelines.

With that in mind, the longest Hegner Royce would be sentenced to is about five years, according to Ramsey County District Judge Nicole Starr, the judicial officer presiding over the case.

Hegner Royce’s defense attorney plans to call witnesses to the sentencing hearing in hopes of convincing Starr that his client deserves a shorter sentence.

He also tried to convince Starr to release Hegner Royce from custody Monday as he awaits his sentencing hearing in mid-August, arguing that his client was no longer a flight risk because he’d pleaded guilty to the crime. He added that he had a child and two stepkids to support at home.

The prosecution pushed back, pointing to the concealment of the involved vehicle as indication of the lengths Hegner Royce might go to to avoid prison.

“The defendant knew or had reason to to know that law enforcement was looking for the vehicle,” Atakpu said. “He knew what was going on, or knew people were attempting to hide it … that suggests there are ongoing attempts to conceal what really happened here.”

Starr sided with the state and ordered Hegner Royce to remain in custody until his sentencing Aug. 15.

The next hearing in the case pending against his mother is scheduled for later this week. Abbey Hegner faces two counts of aiding an offender.

VICTIM WAS FATHER, AVID CYCLIST

Hernandez Solano was a father of three and one of 13 children. His three children all reside in Mexico near the city of Leon.

He came to Minnesota about 20 years ago for work.

Three of his colleagues were in the courtroom Monday wearing their Brasa shirts. His family, none of whom live locally, weren’t able to make it in time for the hearing, Atakpu said.