Colorado woman sentenced for trying to poison husband with salad

CASTLE ROCK, Colo. (AP) - A woman who pleaded guilty to putting a poisonous plant on her husband's salad was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison.

Douglas County prosecutor Bryan Garrett says Lisa Leigh Allen's actions show she had "malice in her heart" and that her husband could've suffered a slow "torturous death" for eating the lethal foxglove plant on his dinner salad. Foxglove is a decorative garden plant.

Allen's husband was hospitalized in 2008 after eating a spaghetti dinner and what he describes as a bitter-tasting salad.

The 42-year-old woman was initially charged with attempted murder but under a deal with prosecutors she plead guilty to an assault charge.

Allen told a detective after her arrest that she and her husband had been having martial problems.

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Information from: KMGH-TV, http://www.thedenverchannel.com

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.