A Brown County family got a measure of legal closure this week when the man accused in a deadly hit-and-run that killed 22-year-old father Caleb Holbert admitted his guilt in court. The relief is real, they say, but so is the hole he left behind.
Plea accepted and sentence date set
A Brown County court entry shows that Michael Guillermin withdrew an earlier not-guilty plea and entered guilty pleas to vehicular homicide and failing to stop after the Oct. 24 crash, according to the filing posted here. Local station WKRC reports that Guillermin is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 26, when members of the Holbert family will be allowed to deliver victim impact statements in court.
Family reaction
Caleb’s sister Callie told WCPO that a guilty plea does not come close to erasing the family’s pain. She said she plans to be at every hearing, determined to see the process through. Remembering her brother and his 2-year-old daughter, Callie said she believed he was on track to change the world. For the Holberts, accountability matters, even if it cannot touch the loss itself.
How it happened
Investigators with the Ohio State Highway Patrol say Holbert was walking along State Route 125 in Jefferson Township between about 12:40 a.m. and 1 a.m. on Oct. 24 when a 2020 Ford Escape crossed the center line and struck him, according to FOX19. A Rumpke driver later found Holbert’s body, and troopers recovered a vehicle part at the scene that pointed investigators toward a Ford. We first covered the October crash and the community’s response in our earlier crash coverage.
What the law says
Ohio law groups traffic-death offenses such as vehicular homicide into specific classifications with corresponding penalties, including potential mandatory prison terms, license suspensions and fines that depend on the degree of the offense and the circumstances, according to the Ohio Revised Code. The statute separates aggravated vehicular homicide, vehicular homicide and vehicular manslaughter, and directs courts to impose mandatory terms in certain situations; see Ohio Revised Code §2903.06. Guillermin’s punishment will ultimately be decided by the Brown County Common Pleas Court at the August sentencing hearing.
