A Texas doctor was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Monday after it was proved that she poisoned the coffee of her colleague, who was also her ex-lover. The Texas doctor sentenced by Houston jurors reportedly laced her ex's coffee in 2013 with a sweet-tasting chemical found in antifreeze.
43-year-old breast cancer oncologist Dr. Ana Gonzalez-Angulo, originally from Colombia, was found guilty of aggravated assault, reports the New York Daily News.
She sat stone faced in court as jurors had the Texas doctor sentenced for first-degree felony assault, KPRC reported. She has to serve at least five years before becoming eligible for parole.
Based at Houston's famed Texas Medical Center, she became involved in a sexual relationship with 50-year-old fellow researcher, Dr. George Blumenschein.
According to prosecutors, the Colombian poisoned Blumenschein with ethylene glycol after becoming jealous when he chose his longtime live-in girlfriend of 10 years, Evette Toney, over her. Blumenschein, who survived the poisoning, was trying to start a family with Toney, reported the Associated Press.
The trial started on Sept. 15. In a twist of events befitting a soap opera, prosecutors revealed the truth and succeeded in having the Texas doctor sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Toney, who was present during the trial with Blumenschein when the Texas doctor was sentenced, told the Houston courtroom how she determined Blumenschein was having an affair with his colleague.
Not long after the affair, Blumenschein told jurors he became sick on Jan. 27, 2013. The lung, head and neck cancer specialist immediately suspected his former lover had spiked the coffee she served him, as he remembered complaining of it tasting unusual.
He said Gonzalez-Angulo told him the unusual taste was Splenda. She encouraged him to keep drinking.
Blumenschein survived the poisoning after undergoing an emergency dialysis on the same day.
When he testified last week, he said he is now suffering permanent kidney damage and other health problems. He added that his life span was shortened due to his kidney functioning only 40 percent.
In a shocking revelation, the victim claimed that the Texas doctor sentenced once admitted she hired hit men in Colombia.
"The defendant told me that she had had people executed in Colombia and I was kind of stunned when I heard that. I kind of kept that in the back of my mind," Blumenschein said, according to KPRC.
Prosecutors who had the Texas doctor sentenced said Gonzalez-Angulo had lied about being attacked outside her home so that Blumenschein would leave Toney. They added that in an effort to prove Gonzalez-Angulo had poisoned him, Blumenschein secretly recorded phone conversations with her.
According to witnesses who testified against the Texas doctor sentenced, she had access to ethylene glycol at the University of Texas' M.D. Anderson Cancer Center where she used to work.
During the trial's sentencing phase on Friday, Blumenschein said he is vergy grateful of the progress of events, reports ABC News.
"I am very grateful; justice has been served," said Blumenschein.
Prosecutors had reportedly asked jurors to sentence Gonzalez-Angulo to at least 30 years in prison, but they said they were pleased when the jury had the Texas doctor sentenced to 10 years.
Justin Keiter, one of the prosecutors said the prison sentence is a clear message that whatever one's status in life is, nobody is above the law.
"It doesn't matter who you are. It matters what you do," said Keiter.
Meanwhile, defense attorneys had asked for probation for the female cancer specialist.
Defense attorney Derek Hollingsworth said he was disappointed with the Texas doctor sentenced to 10 years. Hollingsworth noted that the doctor had been "incredibly upset" and emotional after being taken into custody.
"The medical world has lost a shining star today," he said.
Other defense attorneys said they had hoped that Gonzalez-Angulo's work as a cancer researcher would have convinced jurors not to convict the doctor.
"She saved my life and the lives of so many other people," said Silvia Pubchara, one of Gonzalez-Angulo's former patients. "It was heartbreaking for me to see her placed in custody and taken to jail. She doesn't deserve it," she added.
Keiter is however convinced that justice has been served well with the jury's decision of having the Texas doctor sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Keiter said Gonzalez-Angulo could only blame herself for the outcome. "Our society ... should be more angry at her for taking herself away from all those (patients) who she could have done amazing things for," said the prosecutor.
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