A state judge has sentenced a Kaua'i man to five years in prison for the severe neglect of an 82-year-old man at an unlicensed care home.

The elderly resident lost 20 pounds while in the care of Jason Craig of Kalaheo from December 2004 to March 2005, and was admitted to Wilcox Hospital in critical condition, the state attorney general's office said yesterday.

The resident recovered at the hospital but died several months later of respiratory failure, the office said.

The man's family was paying Craig $4,000 a month and was not aware that Craig did not have a license to operate a care home, the attorney general's office said.

A Kaua'i grand jury indicted Craig in February 2007. Circuit Judge Randal Valenciano found him guilty last November of second-degree assault, a felony, for recklessly causing bodily injury to the resident. Craig was also found guilty of operating a care home without a license.

Valenciano on Thursday sentenced Craig, 41, to five years in prison.

According to the attorney general's office, the elderly man was suffering from Parkinson's disease and dementia when he came under Craig's care.

In March 2005, during a physical examination, the man's doctor found him to be emaciated, extremely weak and dehydrated, the attorney general's office said.

The doctor also found that the man had a severe bed sore on his lower back and smaller ulcers on his buttocks and shoulder.

The man's wife later discovered that Craig did not give her husband the medications she had supplied, the attorney general's office said.

The man was immediately admitted to Wilcox Hospital in critical condition.

Hospital staff determined he was suffering from sepsis — a bacterial infection of the blood — and had suffered a small heart attack, the attorney general's office said.

The victim's name was not disclosed.