Latonya Cliff, 38, of Cleveland, cries while talking to Judge John Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Wednesday during her sentencing hearing. She received a four-year prison sentence for providing the methamphetamines in balloons that burst and killed her then-boyfriend in the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown in 2018. At right is her attorney, Angelo Lonardo. Staff photo / Ed Runyan

YOUNGSTOWN — Latonya Cliff, 38, of Cleveland, cried as she said goodbye to her loved ones before walking to the front of the courtroom to be sentenced Wednesday.

She also cried as she spoke to the judge. And, her boyfriend cried as deputies led her away to begin serving a four-year prison sentence.

Cliff had no previous criminal record and had a good job, her attorney said. But she supplied drugs to an inmate in the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown on Dec. 15, 2018, and he died when balloons of the drug broke open in his body.

Cliff pleaded guilty in December to involuntary manslaughter and illegal conveyance of drugs of abuse onto grounds of a specified governmental facility, and prosecutors and the defense agreed to a four-year prison sentence.

Judge John Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court approved the prison term Wednesday and agreed to consider releasing her from prison on judicial release after serving 18 months — as long as she abides by the rules while in the lockup.

Kevin Day, assistant county prosecutor, said Cliff took methamphetamine to the prison and gave it to inmate Perez Worley, 28, who was serving a life prison sentence for aggravated murder in the 2014 East Cleveland shooting death of another man.

Worley ingested it, and the balloons of drugs “exploded” inside of him, causing an overdose and his death, Day said.

Cliff is pregnant, and having a baby in prison likely will be “quite traumatic,” Day said.

But even though Cliff has no criminal record, her first conviction is “quite a high ledge to drop off of,” and Day recommended she get the four-year sentence.

Her attorney, Angelo Lonardo, said Cliff “fell in love” with Worley, but Worley told her he needed the drugs to sell so he could afford a lawyer who could win his case on appeal. “She got into a real mess because she loved this fellow,” he said.

Her new boyfriend, a machinist, was in the courtroom Thursday, Lonardo pointed out.

Cliff cried throughout her remarks to the judge, saying she has a 12-year-old son and, “I feel so stupid” for doing what Worley asked.

erunyan@tribtoday.com