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Fear Of Death Penalty Triggered Hit & Run Driver's Flight

DENVER (CBS4) - A woman who was sentenced this week to 12 years in prison for striking and killing a young valet in Denver in a hit-and-run says she understands the heartache she's caused.

"I understand that I destroyed the dreams of many people," Norma Vera-Nolasco told CBS4's Michelle Griego through a translator.

Speaking from inside the Denver County Jail, Vera-Nolasco said she had been drinking but didn't feel drunk on the night of the January accident that killed Jose Medina. She remembers driving on Lincoln Street when she felt something.

"I did hear a bump but when I turned around it was a car … it wasn't anything else," she said.

She said she was too scared to stop and didn't realize she had hit a person.

"If I would have saw him I would have stopped and I would've helped him," she said.

Instead, she went home. It wasn't until two days later when relatives told her police were looking for her car that she says she realized she had killed someone.

"I didn't believe that I caused such huge damage," she said.

Vera-Nolasco says it passed through her mind to turn herself in, "but then I spoke to some friends and they told me it was possible I would get the death penalty."

Using her sister's name, Vera-Nolasco then decided to head for her home country of Mexico. She says she was sitting on a plane at a Phoenix airport when she called relatives and found out her brother and sister had both been arrested for helping her.

"When I was on the plane that's when I decided to tell the attendant and she told the captain," she said.

Shortly afterwards, officers boarded the plane to arrest her.

RELATED STORY: Family Members Face Hit-And-Run Driver In Tearful Sentencing

Vera-Nolasco says she will now live with the pain she's caused forever.

"I wish they would forgive me because I didn't plan on trying to hurt anyone," she said. "I think that only God knows the punishment I deserve."

Vera-Nolasco is in the country illegally. She is expected to be deported when she is released from prison. When she returns to Mexico she said she plans to live with her mother.

Vera-Nolasco's brother and sister have pleaded guilty to helping her escape. They will likely get probation. A man who helped hide the car was sentenced to three years in prison.

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