Marshall Leon Hart was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to leaving the scene of a crash that killed motorcyclist LeRoy Canty on Crawford Road in Rock Hill last August. Hart, identified as 43 in the newly filed court record, admitted in York County Criminal Court that he fled the collision scene on foot after his Mercedes struck the 41-year-old Canty's Suzuki motorcycle.
According to the Rock Hill Herald, Hart pleaded guilty in York County Criminal Court to hit and run, duties of a driver involved in an accident with death. Court documents cited by the Herald show Judge Bill McKinnon handed down the five-year sentence following a negotiated plea agreement between prosecutors and Hart, according to Hart's lawyer. The newspaper's earlier reporting had listed Hart's age as 42 at the time of his arrest, a discrepancy that remains unresolved between that account and the age given in the sentencing coverage.
How the Crash Unfolded on Crawford Road
Canty died at the scene of the collision near Crawford Road and Poag Street, per Rock Hill police and the York County coroner, as reported by the same outlet's earlier coverage of the case. The Mercedes that Hart was allegedly driving struck Canty's Suzuki motorcycle before Hart left the scene on foot, and officers later found him north of the crash site on Frank Street, the Herald's initial report noted.
Accounts of exactly how the crash began differ slightly across outlets. QC News reported that the Mercedes made a left turn in front of the motorcycle, causing the collision, while WSOC-TV reported that a driver ran a stop sign, hit a man on a motorcycle, and then ran from the scene. Neither account has been reconciled with the other in the available reporting.
Charges Stemming From the August 2025 Crash
In the days after the crash, WBTV reported that Hart was arrested and charged with driving under suspension, operating an uninsured motor vehicle, and leaving the scene of an accident where death results. The fatal wreck was the fifth in York County in the month before it happened, the Herald's original report noted, underscoring a stretch of deadly roadways in the area that summer.
Sources also diverge on the maximum penalty Hart faced under South Carolina law. The Herald's earlier reporting said leaving the scene of a collision involving death carries one to 25 years in prison upon conviction, while a South Carolina Code of Laws excerpt from the South Carolina General Assembly states that imprisonment may be not more than thirty years if death results. The discrepancy between the two figures has not been resolved in the available record, and Hart's five-year sentence falls within either range described.
The case was reported by Andrew Dys for the Rock Hill Herald, whose coverage has tracked the matter from Hart's arrest through the plea and sentencing. Details on any time Hart may have already served, or the precise date his sentence began, have not been made public in the available court record.
