CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) – A Framingham woman whose husband died more than six months after she stabbed him was sentenced to 10 to 12 years in state prison on Tuesday after changing her plea to guilty.

Claire Harfield, 67, was also sentenced to 10 years of probation after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the 2001 death of Bernard Harfield, 72.

Claire Harfield stabbed her husband with a steak knife seven times inside their Framingham home on May 6, 2001. Bernard Harfield died Nov. 29, 2001 and the state medical examiner ruled the death a homicide upon determining that he died from multiple organ failure as a result of the stabbing.

The couple had a history of domestic disputes.

Shortly after the stabbing, Claire Harfield was arraigned in district court and ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. She was subsequently found incompetent to stand trial and was committed to Worcester State Hospital for care.

After her husband died, she was arraigned on upgraded charges in district court again, pleaded innocent and found competent to stand trial. She pleaded innocent again at her arraignment in superior court in February 2002, and was ordered held without bail.

She will receive credit for time served.

AP-ES-12-28-04 1907EST