Albany County District Attorney Lee C. Kindlon announced today that the 37-year-old man who struck and killed a pedestrian on Wolf Road in March and then fled the scene is heading to state prison.
Heath Mabeus was sentenced by the Honorable Roger McDonough Friday to serve two and a third to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to Leaving the Scene of an Incident Involving Death Without Reporting, a class D felony.
On March 14 at approximately 6:30 a.m., Colonie Police responded to reports of a pedestrian struck by a car on Wolf Road in the area of Beltrone Drive. The victim, Migdalia Aulet, 58, of Schenectady, sustained serious injuries and was pronounced dead on scene.
Witnesses reported a white sedan fleeing the area. Colonie Police, with help from the Schenectady County Sheriff’s Office and the Capital Region Crime Analysis Center, were able to locate both Mabeus and his vehicle at his home in Clifton Park. The windshield was caved in and the victim’s hair was found inside the car.
Aulet’s son, Jonathan Aulet, spoke before sentencing.
“What you did not only hurt me,” he said. “My mom wasn't just a mom. She was a friend, a niece, an aunt, a godmother. She was a good mother to me and my brother and our friends and neighbors, her friends and family. And that's what you took away from us. Someone who believed in God and actually followed.”
Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Jektyan, who prosecuted the case with ADA Katherine Miller of the Vehicular Crimes Unit, said Mabeus had several chances to do the right thing – to stay at the crash site or later turn himself in – yet he chose to hide.
“Even if at that moment he didn’t realize what he had struck, he knew very shortly after that it was a person, it was the victim, Ms. Aulet,” Jektyan said. “Instead of taking responsibility and going to the police and reporting it, he cowardly waited at home.”
While Mabeus offered a one-sentence apology to the family before sentencing, Judge McDonough admonished him for not fully accepting what he did.
“This crime you’re charged with, albeit not a homicide charge or manslaughter charge, has the same devastating impact on the family as if you had intentionally killed her,” he said. “And until you come to grips with this in your own mind and acknowledge it, you’re never going to transcend this, and the family is going to be left with additional heartbreak, additional remorse and additional anger over this incident.”
