The tiny 64-year-old Filipino-American grandmother said she was disillusioned with the justice system and disappointed with a jury’s verdict that convicted her of manslaughter in the death of a longtime patient and also found her guilty of five counts of trafficking pain pills and one count of racketeering.

She expressed frustration with the former patients who testified against her, calling their accusations “all lies.”

“I am saddened by the fact that those I tried to help improve their lives and alleviate their suffering turned against me,” Luyao said during her sentencing on April 29. “I want to let you know that what I’ve done for 25 years in this county, I only did to help people. I only did the best I could.”

Shortly after speaking, Luyao learned her fate.

Senior Circuit Judge Dwight Geiger sentenced Luyao, who already had lost her license to practice medicine, to 50 years in prison.

The sentence included 15 years for the manslaughter charge and 20 years for the racketeering charge.

Both sentences will run at the same time.

He ordered her to spend 30 years in prison for each of the five trafficking-in-oxycodone charges, which also will run at the same time but after the other sentences.

Geiger didn’t have much choice. State law required a minimum of 25 years on two of the drug charges.

Assistant State Attorney Erin Kirkwood asked Geiger for a sentence of 60 years, saying Luyao fed the addictions of her patients with prescriptions for large doses of painkillers, which led to overdose deaths.

“She flooded the streets of the Treasure Coast with these drugs with predictable results,” Kirkwood said.

Kirkwood said Geiger’s sentence was fair.

Luyao’s attorney, Joel Hirschhorn, called it a “death sentence.”

“She’s 64 years old. She’s a frail woman,” Hirschhorn said. “I think she’s in a state of shock, understandably so.”

Prosecutors had charged Luyao with six counts of manslaughter in the overdose deaths of six of her former patients.

But the jury acquitted Luyao on five of those counts, convicting her only in the March 2001 death of Julia Hartsfield, who had been her patient since 1996.

Hartsfield’s husband sat in the back row of the courtroom and watched the hearing, but he chose not to speak.

“This brings some closure for everyone involved,” said Kirkwood, who was involved with the case even before Luyao’s 2002 arrest.

Connie Velie’s daughter, Tina Smith, was one of the patients who died of an overdose for which Luyao was found not guilty of manslaughter.

Velie said she still blames Luyao for both her daughter’s death and the death of her son, who was also Luyao’s patient when he died. Luyao was not charged in his death.

“I have two children I’ll never see again,” Velie said, crying.

Throughout two trials — the first ended in a mistrial last year — Kirkwood argued that Luyao essentially ran a “pill mill” from her office in the old Village Green plaza.

The doctor’s goal, she said, was to make money by keeping patients addicted to powerful narcotics.

Hirschhorn argued that Luyao was a compassionate doctor who tried to help patients who complained of pain and had no one else to turn to. She was “taken in” by some who lied and manipulated her to get the drugs, he argued.

During the hearing, Luyao thanked her friends and family who stuck by her.

Afterwards, Geiger allowed Luyao to remain in the courtroom as one-by-one her family and friends sat down across from her to speak to her. More than a dozen people lined up for the brief chance to be close to her.

They were not allowed to touch her, and most cried as they offered her words of love and support while Luyao quietly thanked them.

“In my prayers, I always thanked God for giving me a sister like Asuncion Luyao,” said Maria Nella. “I cannot understand why God has chosen for her to bear this unique cross, but I believe He has a purpose for her. I am proud to be her sister.”

During her trials, Luyao did not reveal any emotions, but she began to cry at her sentencing when her sisters spoke on her behalf. They said her one fault is that she’s too trusting.

“People came to her and manipulated her and played with her compassion,” her sister-in-law Chary Mendoza said.

Luyao was one of the first in the nation to be charged with causing the deaths of patients from prescription drug abuse.