SAN JOSE — A former doctor who ran a pain management clinic out of Los Gatos has been sentenced to four years in prison for operating a pill mill and the involuntary manslaughter of a patient fresh out of rehab, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.

Jasna Mrdjen, 74, of Mountain View, pleaded no contest in September to nine counts of prescribing a controlled substance to persons without a legitimate medical purpose, two counts of dispensing a controlled substance to an addict, one count of conspiracy and one count of involuntary manslaughter for the death of 29-year-old Steven English.

Handed down late last week, the prison sentence caps what is believed to be the Bay Area’s first case in decades in which prosecutors were seeking to convict a physician of manslaughter for prescribing narcotics to a struggling addict who overdosed and died.

Authorities launched an investigation in 2011 after a patient was arrested for selling drugs prescribed by Mrdjen.

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San Jose: Suspect arrested in sexual assault at St. James Park The investigation showed Mrdjen was writing excessive prescriptions for Oxycodone and Percocet, prosecutors said. In one case, she authorized high doses of drugs for an undercover officer posing as a patient with foot pain without even asking her to remove her shoe.

Other patients also were arrested for reselling drugs prescribed by Mrdjen for a profit, prosecutors said.

On Jan. 3, 2012, Mrdjen prescribed Oxycodone, Flexeril and Clonazepam to English, who had recently returned from rehab, prosecutors said. He was found dead by his parents two weeks later at their home in Truckee. The cause of death was ruled as “multiple drug ingestion.”

Mrdjen also altered English’s patient file and forged his signature after his death, prosecutors said.

“I hope this tragedy serves to warn others of the depth and danger of the prescription drug abuse epidemic and reminds those who are tempted to overprescribe powerful narcotics to value their patients’ lives over profits,” Deputy District Attorney Dana Veazey said in a statement.

Mrdjen’s lawyer, Guyton Jinkerson, said his client’s sentence was stayed. She was placed on conditional release and given credit for time served while in jail from May 2012 to November 2012 and while she was on electronic monitoring from last September to May 19.

“She is not presently incarcerated and will not be as long as she obeys all laws,” he said.