CLEVELAND (AP) – A home health-care aide who fed a bagel to a patient too ill to swallow solid food was sentenced Friday to five years in prison for involuntary manslaughter and other offenses.

Wanda Kanner, who was having an affair with the victim’s husband, was originally charged with murder but pleaded guilty in a deal with prosecutors.

Judge Michael Russo told Kanner that even though she was not a registered nurse, she should have known that feeding Darlene Amberik a bagel soaked in milk could be fatal.

Amberik, a 49-year-old multiple sclerosis patient, died at her suburban Cleveland home in 2001 after vomiting pieces of the bagel into her airway.

Kanner, 49, also was sentenced for theft, practicing nursing without a license and filing a false tax return. She was ordered to repay $195,000 to a union fund that paid for Amberik’s care.

She could have gotten 30 years behind bars.

Kanner, who wept at times during the sentencing, declined the opportunity to speak, but the judge read aloud a letter in which she denied trying to harm Amberik.

Both sides said Kanner was having an affair with the victim’s husband around the time of her death.

Authorities thought Amberik’s death was an accident until discovering a year later that her husband had bought an engagement ring for Kanner before his wife died.

John Amberik, 52, was charged with submitting false insurance bills but was not charged in his wife’s death.

AP-ES-04-02-04 1738EST

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