A Texas doctor was sentenced to 10 years in prison this week after a jury convicted her of poisoning her lover after he allegedly rejected her for another woman.
Dr. Ana Gonzalez-Angulo, an oncologist at Houston's MD Anderson Cancer Center, was sentenced Monday following a Friday aggravated assault conviction for spiking the coffee of fellow cancer doctor Dr. George Blumenschein with ethylene glycol, a sweet-tasting, but toxic chemical
found in in antifreeze, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Gonzalez-Angulo, 43, had been involved in a sexual relationship with Blumenschein, 50, in 2013 when he decided to end their affair to work things out with Evette Toney, his longtime live-in girlfriend with whom he was
trying to start a family, according to NBC News.
Blumenschein, an expert in head and neck cancers, survived the poisoning after undergoing emergency dialysis, but sustained permanent kidney damage that could shorten his lifespan. Prosecutors initially sought 30 years, but a jury decided on 10 years and a $10,000 fine.
Gonzalez-Angulo's attorney told jurors during the punishment phase that his client should not be judged by this one lapse of judgment but by her entire life and what she has done to try to save lives.
"The sum of a human being's life should not be judged by one event," attorney Derek Hollingsworth said, according to the Chronicle. "It's not the right result to send her to prison for a lengthy amount of time. She could still be a researcher, looking for ways to cure breast cancer or she could sit in a jail cell [and] be a ward of the state."
Gonzalez-Angulo attended medical school at the Universidad del Cauca in Colombia before moving to the United States,
according to her MD Anderson biography. She also served as an associate professor with tenure in the Department of Breast Medical Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.