Sentencing set for bride who faked cancer to collect donations
Posted May 23, 2012 2:34 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
GOSHEN, N.Y. – Sentencing is set for an Upstate New York woman who admits she faked having cancer to con donors into paying for her wedding and Caribbean honeymoon.
Jessica Vega isn’t likely to do prison time, but court officials say she’ll have to repay $13,368 to her victims. She’s been in Orange County Jail since she pleaded guilty April 25.
Vega was living in Montgomery, 100 kilometres north of New York City, when she launched her scam.
In 2010, she said she was dying of leukemia and wanted a “dream wedding” to Michael O’Connell, the father of her baby.
Donors gave rings, a wedding dress and other goods and services.
O’Connell later questioned the story and they divorced. Vega was arrested April 3 in Virginia, where she was back with O’Connell.
