NEW YORK (AP) — A drunken driver who mowed down a woman and then fled to Ecuador for 12 years broke into tears Friday as he apologized to her family, saying he belatedly took responsibility for his conduct.
Jose Heras was sentenced to 3 1/2 to seven years in prison for killing Kristen Nemec in May 1997, and then skirting prosecution by living under an alias in Ecuador. He pleaded guilty last month to vehicular manslaughter and bail jumping.
"I am just sorry because I left a big hole in their lives," he said as several of Nemec's relatives and friends looked on in a Manhattan courtroom.
Nemec, a 25-year-old graduate student at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, had come to New York to be a bridesmaid in a friend's wedding. Heras plowed his car into Nemec while she crossed a street in her lavender-colored bridesmaid's dress, Manhattan prosecutors said. The pearls she was wearing were found on his windshield.
Heras, now 34, fled the accident scene but surrendered to authorities two days later, prosecutors said. He posted $3,500 bail and disappeared a few months after his arrest.
Authorities ultimately found him living under an assumed name in Cuenca, Ecuador. The American citizen was deported from Ecuador in August.
Nemec's father said Heras' flight compounded the family's pain.
"Each time we were reminded of Kristen's absence, we were further slapped with the reality of her killer's freedom," Richard O. Nemec told the court. The family lives in West Los Angeles, Calif.
District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said the case shows that "although time may pass, the wheels of justice keep turning."
