Olathe ? A 47-year-old former Johnson County day care operator convicted in the suffocation death of an 18-month-old girl has been sentenced to more than three years in prison.

Jeanette Lawrence was convicted earlier this year on charges of involuntary manslaughter, aggravated child endangerment and operating a registered day care center with too many children.

The Kansas City Star reported that she was sentenced Friday to 41 months in prison in the death of 18-month-old Ava Patrick, who suffocated in 2009 when her neck got caught in the slats of a wooden fence at the day care center Lawrence operated.

Defense lawyer Christopher Williams said the death was an accident, not the result of reckless behavior.