Susan Swanson will serve four and a half to 15 years in prison for the hit-and-run death of a 40-year-old man on Grand River Avenue in Okemos last year, a judge announced Wednesday.

Swanson, 42, was sentenced by Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Brown on Wednesday, nearly two months after a jury found her guilty of drunken driving and leaving the scene of an accident causing death, said Joyce Draganchuk, an assistant county prosecutor.

On July 31, 2002, Swanson's Cadillac struck Alejandro Salinas as he walked along Grand River Avenue to his brother's home.

During the trial prosecutors said that Swanson had been drinking at Harrison Roadhouse, 720 Michigan Ave., earlier that evening,

Swanson's attorney, Frank Reynolds, said Salinas' death was an accident and that his client thought she collided with a construction marker or a deer.

Draganchuk said the death "illustrates that tragedy can happen to ordinary people from drunk driving."

Swanson faced a maximum of 15 years in prison for the drunken driving causing death conviction and up to five years for the leaving the scene of an accident conviction.

Brown sentenced Swanson to four and a half to 15 years for drunken driving and three to five years on the hit-and-run charge.

The sentences will be served concurrently and Draganchuk said she expects Swanson to appeal the conviction.