BRUNSWICK, Ga. -- An 18-year-old high school senior riding a bicycle on U.S. 17 early Monday was struck and killed by a car that the Georgia State Patrol was driven by a man who had been drinking and failed to stop.

Mikeal Hodges was riding his bike around 12:30 a.m. Monday when he was hit by a car in what Cpl. William Nease of the Georgia State Patrol described as a hit-and-run.

Hodges died later at a hospital.

Enrique Martinez, 24, was stopped minutes after Hodges was hit when a state trooper saw that one of the headlights on Martinez's car was out and then noticed front-end damage, Nease said.

The trooper also heard a Glynn County police alert about the hit-and-run, Nease said.

Martinez was charged with first-degree homicide by vehicle, hit-and run, driving under the influence, driving with a suspended license and having an open container of alcohol in his vehicle, Nease said.

"It raises the question we always ask, "Why?'" said one of Hodges' teachers, Bill Woodard.

Two memorials for Hodges have appeared -- one at the scene where he was struck and the other on a wall at Glynn Academy, where everyone knew him by the nickname Butterbean.

"To lose such a wonderful person -- 18 years-old, full of goals, wanting to join the military, serve our country -- it's been hard," Glynn Academy teacher Teresa Lemmond told Channel 4's Laura Mazzeo.

Hodges was a dedicated member of the school's ROTC unit and wanted to join the Marines.

"He would always come in here with a smile on his face; always come in here ready to work or help out some fellow cadet," said ROTC instructor Sgt. Major Anthony Carter. "He just had a good heart. You never saw this guy have a bad day."

Martinez was jailed without bail at the Glynn County Detention Center.