ROCHESTER (AP) - A young mother was sentenced to 16 months to four years in prison Tuesday for leaving her three children alone at home shortly before a fire broke out, fatally injuring her 3-year-old daughter.

Nicole Allen, 22, drew the maximum penalty for criminally negligent homicide and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

Prosecutors said Allen was on a midnight beer run in September 2008 when a stove fire broke out in her apartment in Rochester where her children - 3-year-old Karami, 20-month-old Dayveion and 2-month-old Natalya - were left alone.

All were badly burned, and Kamari died nearly three months later from burns over more than two-thirds of her body. Allen's two other children remain in foster care.

Authorities said the fire was caused by a gas burner that was left on under a cooking pot.

After an 11-month investigation, Allen was arrested in August and charged with manslaughter, which carries a maximum sentence of five to 15 years.

While conceding that Allen left her children alone while she walked more than a mile to a store to buy beer, the defense argued that she had not acted recklessly.

The jury acquitted Allen of manslaughter on Feb. 8 but convicted her of a lesser felony of criminally negligent homicide, deciding she'd failed to perceive she created a substantial and unjustifiable risk of death.