A South Ogden pediatrician will go to jail for 90 days instead of prison in the 1989 death of a Sunset woman he was treating for cancer.

The prison sentence of one to 15 years for Dr. Sherman B. Johnson, 52, was stayed Tuesday by 2nd District Judge Douglas L Cornaby. The judge ordered Johnson to serve three months in the county jail instead, fined him $10,000, and put him on home confinement for an additional year.During his home confinement Johnson will be free to work, spending three days a week at a Weber County community center as public service and three days in private employment to support his family, the judge ruled.

Johnson pleaded guilty in April to a second-degree felony charge of manslaughter in the Oct. 4, 1989, death of Donna Marie Jones in Sunset.

Johnson was treating Jones for ovarian cancer, administering the painkiller Demerol, Valium, and other prescription medicines over a six-month period before she died.

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When Jones died minutes after he administered a large dose of Demerol, Johnson signed the death certificate listing ovarian cancer and pneumonia as the cause of death.

But a nurse who also helped treat Jones at home tipped police that Jones' death was suspicious. A medical examination done on Jones after her body was exhumed in February 1990 showed no evidence of ovarian cancer and tests show she died of a drug overdose.

According to the affidavit Johnson signed when he pleaded guilty to the manslaughter charge on April 28, he administered 386,000 milligrams (about 31/2 gallons, according to prosecutors) of Demerol, 8,400 millgrams of Valium, and two other prescription drugs to Jones during the six months before her death.

The affidavit states Johnson was alone with Jones in her room for about 20 minutes on the day of her death, then emerged and said that she had died.

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