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A day before crash victim's birthday, Plymouth woman faces charges in court

PLYMOUTH, Mass. — A Plymouth woman charged with leaving the scene of a deadly crash appeared in court on more serious charges Tuesday.

Jean Marie Grupillion now faces a felony charge in the death of 23-year-old Marcus Osborne.

Grupillion is charged with leaving the scene of the crash and causing Marcus' death. His mother, who now lives out of state, visited the cemetery after going to court. Her son's birthday would have been Wednesday, June 6.

"If he had survived, he would have been 24 tomorrow,” Charlene Pina said after court.

According to court documents, Marcus was walking with his girlfriend along Route 3A in the Manomet section of Plymouth last August when he started talking about hurting himself.

MORE: Woman charged in August fatal hit-and-run

Prosecutors say Marcus stepped into the roadway intentionally after an argument.

Police said Marcus was hit and thrown quite a distance, but the driver kept going. Investigators say they connected Grupillion to the crash using car debris found at the scene. When police went to her home hours later, they say she thought she hit an animal. The family knows Marcus may have stepped into the road, but they say Grupillion should have stopped.

“Regardless of how he ended up in the road, whether it his fault or her fault, it's not really relevant to her specific charge of leaving the scene of an accident,” Pina said.

According to state records, Grupillion has been a licensed nurse since May of 2007 and just renewed her license last month. Marcus' family wishes she had stopped so she could have possibly helped.

We tried talking to Grupillion at her last court appearance, but we were unsuccessful.

MORE: Plymouth hit and run victim's family wants to see cited driver in court