Regina Schenck, 46, of Herald, a small community in southern Sacramento County, is headed to prison for three years and five months, the sentenced handed down for her stealing $1.3 million from her employer, Sacramento law firm Diepenbrock Harrison.

She was also ordered to repay the $1.3 million to her former employer plus $264,000 in restitution to the IRS. She pleaded guilty on Sept. 1.

Between 2003 and 2008, Ms. Schenck wrote law firm checks to pay her own bills, created false documents, and told lies to cause law firm partners to authorize checks that she secretly used to buy five horses and a horse trailer, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Segal, who prosecuted the case.

She also used the law firm’s computer network to inflate her salary, give herself bonuses and benefits, and she omitted her fraud-procured income from her tax return, prosecutors say.