MINOT (AP) - Owners of a Minot-area livestock auction business struggled to stay composed as they described how their former bookkeeper stole more than $475,000.

Melanie Zimbelman was ordered Monday to serve six years in prison for embezzling from Northern Livestock Auction, and to repay the money.

Roger Sundsbak, one of the owners, said he had confronted Zimbleman after he discovered she changed a deposit slip.

"I said, 'Melanie, we're friends, aren't we?' And she said, 'Yes,'" Sundsbak testified, his voice breaking. "I said, 'Then we have a problem.'"

Sundsbak said he felt betrayed because he had trusted Zimbelman.

Assistant Ward County State's Attorney Kelly Dillon asked Sundsbak to describe the effect of the thefts.

"That broke us," Sundsbak said.

"I went to the banker and offered him my house," he said. The company owes four times as much money now as when he and partner George Bitz purchased it, he said.

Sundsbak, 61, said he had started a savings account 17 years ago in hopes of giving it to his daughters. Now, he has had to work two jobs to make ends meet, he said.

"My net worth's about nothing, now," Sundsbak, said. "If she would have come to me, or George, and asked us for $2,000, $5,000, we would have given it to her."

Bitz, 73, also took the witness stand to talk about his feelings of betrayal.

"We sure want restitution," he said. "It doesn't grow on trees. That was six years of hard work.

"She told me, 'I'll take care of you,' and I trusted her. I live 200 miles away. And then she went and stole more than we're worth," Bitz said.

Zimbelman, 43, appeared calm as she said "guilty" twice when asked for her pleas by Judge Gary Lee. Her attorney, Chad McCabe of Bismarck, told Lee that Zimbelman was remorseful and that she was willing to make restitution part of her probation conditions.

McCabe asked Lee to sentence Zimbelman to 10 years in prison with eight years suspended. He said arrangements were being made to pay Sundsbak and Bitz back the money that was stolen, and that a civil judgment had been issued in September against Zimbelman for more than $725,000.

Because of legal deadlines for the criminal charge, investigators could go back only three years from the date the complaint was filed.

McCabe also said Zimbelman has no prior record.

"I feel that I'm sorry to Roger and George," Zimbelman said through tears. "Because like people have said, they trusted me."

Zimbelman said she was under a lot of pressure at the time of the thefts.

"It started small and it was just too easy, because I had the access," she said. "I'm just glad it's all over."

Lee accepted the state's recommendation of a 10-year sentence with four years suspended.

He also barred Zimbelman from any contact with Sundsbak, Bitz or their family members for 10 years, except through an attorney.