A Texas doctor has been sentenced to 10 years behind bars on Monday after a jury of her peers pronounced her guilty of poisoning her lover, who was also a colleague.
Dr. Ana Maria Gonzalez-Angulo, 43, was convicted on Friday on counts of aggravated assault after she was adjudged to have laced Dr. George Blumenschein's cup of coffee with ethylene glycol - a chemical usually found in antifreeze.
Dr Gonzalez-Angulo, who is originally from Columbia, worked with Dr. Blumenschein, 50, as an oncologist at the prestigious University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
The two became sexually intimate, but when Blumenschein reportedly shunned her for his former girlfriend Evette Toney, who he had plans of marrying, she spiked his coffee with the poisonous and sweet-tasting chemical in 2013.
Although Dr. Blumenschein survived the poisoning, doctors say his kidney has been permanently damaged.
Dr. Blumenschein told the court that he remembers drinking the cup of coffee which Dr. Gonzalez-Angulo had prepared for him. He said he recalled commenting on the strange taste of the beverage but was encouraged by Dr. Gonzalez-Angulo to keep drinking after she dismissed it as just Splenda.
Dr. Gonzalez-Angulo pleaded not guilty and prosecutors asked the Houston jurors that she be sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in prison. The jury however chose 10.
Defense Attorney Derek Hollingsworth had asked for probation for his client. After the sentencing he told reporters that he was disappointed by the outcome of the trial.
Hollingsworth was also reported as saying that Dr. Gonzalez-Angulo is certain to have her medical license withdrawn, "the medical world has lost a shining star today."
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