A New Mexico workers' comp manager was sentenced to one year in prison after she pled guilty to one count of embezzling money to support her gambling habit.

Donna Joyce Espinoza, a resident of Albuquerque, N.M., took more than $328,000 from New Mexico Mutual Insurance Company over a two-year period. Espinoza continuously wrote checks from workers' comp settled claim files and making them payable to about 30 unsuspecting friends and other company associates. It is believed Espinoza used the funds to gamble at the various casinos throughout the Albuquerque area.

Espinoza received a nine-year sentence with eight suspended and was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center in Albuquerque to serve one year in confinement. She will also pay restitution as a term of the suspended portion of her sentence and release.