Here comes the bride — fresh out of prison.
The scheming bridezilla who duped her family — and her upstate neighbors — into paying for her “dream” wedding by pretending she was dying of cancer was sentenced yesterday — and immediately released.
Jessica Vega has already paid back more than $13,368 to her nine victims, who cut her checks ranging from $500 to $3,700, prosecutors revealed.
She was sentenced to the two months she’s already served in jail — and was released to reunite with the man who divorced her after he uncovered the 2010 scam.
“I’m a good person; I made a mistake and now I’m just trying to focus on making things right,” Vega told The Post, insisting she was now going to donate to cancer charities.
Vega, 25, took $13,368 from pitying donors who gave her gifts of a dress, wedding rings, food and a Caribbean honeymoon after she said she hoped to have a lavish wedding before dying of leukemia, which she didn’t have.
“My daughter has been asking for me every day,” said Vega, who has a 3-year-old girl and an 8-month-old son.
“I’m a good mother, and this is the longest they’ve ever been away from me — they need me as much as I need them.
“I want to make this a positive, not a negative.”
In court, she asked her victims for forgiveness.
“I just want to take the time to apologize to anyone in this courtroom who was offended by the crimes I committed,” Vega said.
She also asked the judge to “give me the opportunity to live a more positive lifestyle and return to my children and my family.”
She faced up to 20 years behind bars, but under an April 25 plea deal, she managed to avoid jail time in exchange for paying back her victims.
Vega was also hit with five years of probation, 300 hours of community service and enrollment in substance abuse and mental health programs.
When asked before sentencing how his client was doing, defense lawyer Jeremiah Flaherty replied, “Not good, she’s never been in jail in her life. It’s had a toll on her.”
Judge Robert Freehill said he was skeptical that Vega was the sole perpetrator of the scam, then told her she was fortunate she didn’t suffer from the disease she claimed to have.
“No one likes to be taken advantage of. No one likes to be made a fool of,” he said.
Vega’s ex-husband, Michael O’Connell, exposed her scheme in a local paper in Orange County after their May 2010 wedding. O’Connell, who had one child with Vega, dumped her about four months after the ceremony, but they hooked up again later and had another kid.
O’Connell claimed he was among those fooled by Vega into thinking she had acute myeloid leukemia.
Outside court yesterday, he told The Post that he and Vega are legally divorced, but he said they’d remarry “if she keeps it together for the next few years.”
O’Connell explained that he got back together with Vega because “she finally told me the truth and wanted another shot at being the woman she was, not the woman she had become.”