An Alvinston man has been sentenced to house arrest after pleading guilty in the hit-and-run death of a Strathroy man.

On Oct. 11, 2021, Iwan Johannes Smolders, 45, was out for bike ride on Calvert Drive when the father of two was hit by a vehicle. He left by the side of the road and died.

Police searched for a Dodge with damage around the headlight in the Thanksgiving Day crash.

Smolders had ties to Brooke-Alvinston. His wife, Sonia, was a member of the Brooke-Alvinston Skating Club.

On Dec. 22, 2021, OPP officers went to a River Street address and towed two vehicles , including a Dodge truck.

Middlesex OPP arrested Later Frederick Earhart, 51, from Alvinston with failing to stop at an accident resulting in death.

The case dragged through the courts slowly. Thursday, Justice Spencer Nicholson sentenced the Alvinston man to house arrest, monitored with a GPS device, for the next year. He’ll then be on a year of probation and subject to a curfew. During that time, he’ll have to attend counselling for alcohol abuse.

He’s also been banned from driving for a year.

If the plea had not been accepted, Earhart’s lawyer said he would apply to have the charges dropped since they had not been resolved in the 30-month time frame required by law to complete criminal cases.