Friends and supporters of a bicyclist struck and killed in a hit-and-run collision on Grand Avenue last November spilled out of a Ramsey County courtroom Wednesday.

Some wore T-shirts from Brasa Rotisserie — where Jose Hernandez Solano worked as a dishwasher — and others from Christos, where the Mexican immigrant worked for 18 years before the Greek restaurant formerly housed in St. Paul’s Union Depot closed.

They came, those who spoke said, to make it clear to the court at the sentencing of the man who killed him that while Solano’s relatives in Mexico couldn’t be present, the 52-year-old father and grandfather was deeply loved by his family as well as the “army” of colleagues and friends he made since coming to Minnesota.

Solano was a “generous,” “thoughtful,” “hilarious” man with “unwavering integrity,” who was “quick to smile, play a practical joke, or help a co-worker.”

He sent the money he earned to his children and ailing parents in Mexico. His only son, who is slated to graduate from college with a degree in engineering, was among those who submitted letters to the court.

Georgia Meyers, a former colleague from Christos, walked the court through the roller-coaster Solano’s loved ones endured after he was struck by Dustin Hegner Royce when the 29-year-old sped down city streets in the early hours last Nov. 26, ran a stop light and hit Solano as he was biking home from work.

The avid cycler was wearing a helmet and had lights on his bike at the time. Hegner Royce didn’t stop, leaving bystanders to call police as Solano lay injured and motionless.

“Our happy… beautiful… kind Jose, hit, run, fighting for his life … face barely recognizable… bartering with God to save him,” Meyers recalled tearfully of the days after he was struck.

After spending 12 days unconscious in a hospital bed, Solano died from his injuries.

She offered choice words to Hegner Royce Wednesday as he sat next to his attorney in the crowded courtroom. Many of his family and friends also attended the hearing.

“You robbed us,” she told him. “Your violence ripped out a piece of our heart.”

After striking Solano, Hegner Royce fled to nearby Keenan’s Bar on West Seventh seeking his mother, Abbey Hegner. The two allegedly brought his car to one of his landscaping job sites, telling his boss he hit a deer.

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

They were initially arrested last December but both were released shortly thereafter after denying involvement in the incident.

Police have still been unable to find the Hyundai Santa Fe Hegner Royce was driving that day. It belonged to Abbey Hegner and Hegner Royce has said he doesn’t know what happened to it after he brought it to the landscaping site.

Abbey Hegner has pleaded not guilty to two counts of aiding an offender in the case.

Hegner Royce wound up pleading guilty to one count of criminal vehicular homicide in early June, saying at the time that while he knew he hit “something” that night, he wasn’t sure if it was a person or something else.

Panic caused him to flee and initially cover up what had happened, he said at the time of his plea, adding that he drove erratically before the collision because he just saw someone who had robbed his aunt at a nearby gas station and subsequently got into “road rage” altercation with another driver.

In arguing that his client deserved a departure from state sentencing guidelines, Hegner Royce’s defense attorney pointed to his client’s decision to plead guilty as well as his remorse as reasons Ramsey County District Judge Nicole Starr should sentence him to 10-years probation instead of prison time.

He also pointed out that he had no prior felony convictions and wide family support.

Guideline sentences for his conviction recommend between about three and five years in prison.

Hegner Royce apologized when he took the stand Wednesday, telling those gathered he viewed Solano as “a brother in Christ” and referred to his actions the night he hit him as a “drastic mistake.”.

“I am truly sorry,” he said.

Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Lee Atakpu urged Starr to be skeptical of Hegner Royce’s remorse and said someone apologizing at sentencing after evading and lying to police for months should not get a break.

He added that it was hard to believe that Hegner Royce didn’t know what he hit that night when video of the incident clearly depicts a biker in front of his vehicle, and subsequently shows Solano’s body flying up on his hood after the collision.

“Instead of stopping and acting like a decent human being …he kept on going,” Atakpu said.

For that, Atakpu asked Starr to sentence him to the maximum recommended by state sentencing guidelines.

Starr wound up sentencing him to about a year less — four years.

In explaining her decision, Starr said she was unconvinced of Hegner Royce’s remorse and that he left “gaping holes” in his account of what happened when he entered his guilty plea, including his failure to explain the current location of the involved-car.

But, she said she also knew that he was “not a monster” and believed his relatives’ accounts of him as a doting and hardworking father to his child and stepchildren.

The criminal justice system is not about “vengeance,” she said, adding that no amount of prison time could account for Solano’s life.

“I know that you are a person who can change,” Starr told Hegner Royce. “I know that you are sorry … what I am not (clear of) is what you are sorry for … that you got caught? … Or if perhaps in quiet moments you are sorry for taking someone’s life.”

Four years wasn’t enough time, Meyer said of the sentence after the hearing.

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Abbey Hegner was among those at the sentencing. She cried throughout the hearing. The next court appearance in her case is scheduled for Friday.