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Last modified: Monday, January 26, 2009 11:15 PM EST



By Dan O'Brien / The Daily Item

REVERE - The illegal alien who struck and killed a 61-year-old man in an Ocean Avenue crosswalk two years ago pleaded guilty to motor vehicle homicide Monday and will likely be deported to Columbia, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley's office said.

Milena Henao, 28, was driving from her Wint-hrop home to a restaurant job about noon on Dec. 31, 2006 when she struck George Azarian, leaving him to die alone in the street.

Suffolk Superior Court Judge Margaret Hinkle sentenced Henao to two, one-year concurrent prison sentences after the defendant pleaded guilty to single counts of motor vehicle homicide and leaving the scene of an accident. Because Henao has been in jail since January 2008, Hinkle sentenced her to time served.

According to Conley, Henao is now the subject of an immigration detainer by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which will schedule a hearing to determine whether she will be deported to her native Columbia. Until that hearing takes place, she will remain held in prison without bail.

Authorities say Henao admitted to striking Azarian, who lived nearby, as he crossed Ocean Avenue before fleeing the scene. No one witnessed the accident, but it was recorded on a surveillance camera, which police said shows Henao not hitting the brakes before striking Azarian.

The recording also captured the vehicle's make, model and year.

Henao was named a suspect two months later after an excruciating investigation, which involved State Police detectives going door to door in Revere, East Boston and Winthrop, looking for a vehicle that matched the suspect car's description because a license plate number was not available.

After interviewing Henao's housemates in Winthrop, it was determined that she had struck a pedestrian on Dec. 31, then brought the car to an East Boston auto body shop for repairs.

By the time authorities tried to question Henao in February 2007, she had fled the state. Police found her in New York City in January 2008.

Prior to sentencing, Hinkle heard an impact statement from Azarian's cousin, who thanked the State police and Suffolk prosecutors who worked on the case. In speaking about his preferred outcome for the case, he expressed a wish to see Henao deported from the United States and the desire that she "feel bad about what she's done for the rest of her life."
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