Pickup Driver Pleads Guilty In Fatal Hit-And-Run

A Southampton man has pleaded guilty to fleeing the scene after fatally striking a 67-year-old pedestrian with his pickup truck, leaving the victim dying along a residential roadway.

Benjamin Sheen-Waltzer, 34, pleaded guilty on September 16th to leaving the scene of an incident without reporting, a felony, in the March 2024 death of Angel Asitimbay of Hampton Bays.

Prosecutors said Asitimbay was walking along Springville Road near Neptune Avenue at about 5 p.m. on March 6th, 2024, pushing a shopping cart filled with glass bottles and cans when Sheen-Waltzer struck him from behind with a 2024 GMC pickup.

The impact threw Asitimbay onto the shoulder and scattered bottles and cans across the roadway.

Asitimbay was rushed to Peconic Bay Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Sheen-Waltzer fled, prosecutors said.

But investigators found a crucial clue amid the wreckage: an “M” from a GMC emblem.

Surveillance video from Hampton Watercraft & Marine allegedly captured Sheen-Waltzer’s pickup with front-end damage and the missing letter. Southampton Town Police later tracked the truck to his home and found its GMC emblem missing.

Police also discovered the “G” and “C” pieces of the emblem inside another vehicle at Sheen-Waltzer’s workplace, prosecutors said. GPS data from the pickup was consistent with his movements before and after the fatal collision.

“This defendant cared more about evading responsibility for his criminal actions than rendering aid to the man he struck,” Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said. “Mr. Asitimbay was left to die on the side of a road with no possible life-saving aid rendered to him.”

Sheen-Waltzer entered his plea before Acting Supreme Court Justice Anthony Senft Jr.

He is scheduled to return to court on November 16th, 2026.