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POSTED: 5:59 pm EST January 24, 2012


Doitchin Krastev

BEND, Ore. -- A Bulgarian man who assumed the identity of a murdered Ohio boy and became an Oregon liquor enforcement agent is getting out of prison and being handed over to immigration officials for procedures that could lead to his deportation.

Doitchin Krastev was expected to be released Tuesday from federal prison in California into the custody of U.S. immigration officials.

He pleaded guilty in 2010 to passport fraud and identity theft and apologized to the family of Jason Robert Evers, a Springfield Township boy who was killed at age 3 in a 1982 kidnapping attempt.

Krastev wasn't linked to the killing. He came to the United States for an education in the 1990s, dropped out of college and then took over Evers' identity.

He was caught because he applied for a passport, and the State Department had begun checking applications against death records.

Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, said Tuesday that she was trying to confirm that the transfer had occurred as scheduled.

After Krastev was arrested and made a plea deal, deportation proceedings were expected. His lawyer said he hoped to rebuild his life in Bulgaria with an American fiancée.

Kice said immigration authorities would interview Krastev and review the case before deciding on what step to take next, such as asking that he be deported.

Krastev was a child and living in Bulgaria, the son of respected scholars, when Evers was killed.

A U.S. official who befriended the family took in Krastev, who graduated from a U.S. high school and earned a scholarship to Davidson College in Charlotte, N.C. But he did poorly, dropped out, and, facing the possibility of returning to Bulgaria, disappeared.

Investigators and journalists found he spent years in Colorado before moving to Oregon and, using Evers' name, passing a background check for a job in central and eastern Oregon with Oregon Liquor Control Commission.

Read more: Bulgarian Who Used Slain Boy's ID To Be Released - Cincinnati News Story - WLWT Cincinnati