As the family of a North Carolina man hit and killed in a hit-and-run last year awaits the sentencing of the suspected illegal immigrant who drove the car, the victim’s mother is calling out what she sees as a double standard in the justice system.
Twenty-year-old Michael Archuleta, known to loved ones as “Little Mike,” was struck and killed by a motorist on November 13 while riding his bike in Brunswick County. Archuleta had almost made it to his family’s driveway when the suspect, Maria Concepcion Cardona Alejo, allegedly hit him with her 2002 Toyota Sequoia. Alejo allegedly fled the scene of the accident, but was arrested three days later and charged with felony hit-and-run and driving without a license.
Archuleta’s mother, Emily Carpenter, told The Daily Wire it’s “not fair” that her son — who had recently scheduled an appointment to get his driver’s license — was killed by an illegal immigrant repeatedly charged with unlicensed driving.
“She was in their courtrooms ten times and they knew that she was just going to keep doing it [breaking the law] because all she has to do is pay her little bit of money and then go down the road,” Carpenter said.
Between 2009 and 2021, Alejo was given a citation at least seven different times for driving without a license and was slapped with small fines for the infractions. In a 2020 incident, Alejo was pulled over for failing to stop at a flashing red light, along with not having a valid driver’s license, and was fined $50.
According to the Brunswick County Sheriff’s booking report, Alejo is a Mexican national. She posted bail a few hours after being detained. Only a few local outlets reported on Archuleta’s killing and Alejo’s arrest in November, and the story has gone unreported since then.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesman told The Daily Wire that he could not confirm if Alejo is in the United States illegally because she was bailed out of jail before ICE could issue a detainer request. In order for ICE to issue a detainer, a suspect must be interviewed by an agent in person to determine his or her status.
But Carpenter told The Daily Wire that she was informed by the district attorney’s office that Alejo is an illegal immigrant. The grieving mother blasted the system of justice that allows an illegal immigrant to “habitually break the law” with little consequence.
Alejo is expected to plead guilty to the fatal hit-and-run at her sentencing hearing in North Carolina Superior Court on August 26, according to the Bladen, Brunswick, and Columbus County District Attorney’s Office.
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The morning after the fatal hit-and-run, Archuleta’s father, Mikie, was taking the family dog outside when a neighbor boy yelled to him, “Your son is dead in the ditch,” Carpenter recalls.
“So my husband goes running down there — with my youngest 10-year-old son following behind him — and he jumps into the ditch and my son is hard and cold.”
“I’ve been numb ever since,” Carpenter added. “I couldn’t live there anymore because my son died in that ditch.”
Carpenter said her son was riding his bike back from a friend’s house when he was killed, adding that Archuleta’s bike had reflectors and that he was wearing a brightly colored sweatshirt. Archuleta was developmentally delayed, which put him slightly behind his peers on milestones such as graduating high school and learning how to drive.
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Carpenter said she has been disappointed with the district attorney’s handling of the case, saying the assistant district attorney assigned to prosecute her son’s alleged killer is “not even trying” to seek a proper sentence. The district attorney’s office told The Daily Wire it could not comment on the ongoing case. When asked if it could confirm that Alijo is in the country illegally, the DA’s office told The Daily Wire to seek that information from federal authorities.
Archuleta enjoyed working with his hands and planned to become a mechanic. Carpenter said her son was a “ladies’ man,” and that she was looking forward to the day she would become a grandmother to his children.
Archuleta’s family faced more tragedy earlier this year when Mikie Archuleta’s cousin, Nicholas Simpson, was killed in a hit-and-run by another alleged illegal immigrant in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Illegal immigration and the border crisis have become top concerns for voters heading into the 2024 election as border encounters have skyrocketed under the Biden-Harris administration. In the past year, many have expressed outrage after Americans Laken Riley, Ruby Garcia, Jocelyn Nungary, Rachel Morin, and Matt Carney, were allegedly murdered by migrants who had crossed the border illegally.
Carpenter and her family, like the families of those Americans killed, continue to await justice for a loved one.
Asked what Carpenter believes would be a proper sentence for Alijo, she told The Daily Wire, “She gave me a life sentence. I have to deal with this pain the rest of my life.”
