Southampton man pleads guilty in hit-and-run that killed Hampton Bays bottle and can collector

A Southampton man pleaded guilty this week to fleeing the scene of a fatal 2024 crash that killed a 67-year-old Hampton Bays pedestrian, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said Thursday.

Benjamin Sheen-Waltzer, 34, admitted to leaving the scene of an incident without reporting, in the death of Angel Asitimbay.

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

Prosecutors said Sheen-Waltzer hit Asitimbay with his 2024 GMC pickup truck about 5 p.m. on March 6, 2024. Asitimbay was walking along a residential stretch of Springville Road, just south of Neptune Avenue, pushing a shopping cart filled with glass bottles and cans, when Sheen-Waltzer struck him from behind, Tierney said.

Asitimbay was thrown forward and came to rest on the shoulder of the southbound lane. He was taken to Peconic Bay Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.

Sheen-Waltzer fled the scene, prosecutors said.

The collision caused the “M” in the car’s GMC emblem to fall off. Investigators recovered it at the scene, among the debris.

Surveillance video from Hampton Watercraft & Marine on Springville Road later captured Sheen-Waltzer’s truck with front-end damage and the emblem letter missing, the DA’s office reported.

Southampton Police traced the truck to Sheen-Waltzer’s Southampton home and found its GMC emblem missing. Detectives later located the “G” and “C” from the emblem inside a different vehicle registered to Sheen-Waltzer at his workplace, prosecutors said.

The DA added that the truck’s GPS data showed a travel path consistent with being at the scene of the crash.

Sheen-Waltzer entered his plea Wednesday before Acting Supreme Court Justice Anthony Senft Jr. He is due back in court Nov. 16 and is being represented by George Duncan. It’s unclear how much time he will serve behind bars.