By Erin McClam
The Associated Press

NEW YORK - Martha Stewart faces a federal judge today to learn her sentence for lying to investigators about a stock sale - completing her downfall from paragon of domestic style to likely white-collar prisoner.

Experts on federal sentencing guidelines expect Stewart, 62, to get 10 to 16 months in prison, although she may be allowed to remain free while she appeals her conviction.

Since the celebrity homemaker was convicted March 5 on four criminal counts, hundreds of fans have flooded the judge with letters begging for leniency.

"This woman is to homemakers what Einstein was to science and Freud was to psychiatry," wrote Eleanor Flomenhaft of Hewlett Harbor, N.Y. "It would be a great waste to put this person in prison."

Another fan, Frank J. Wimberly III of Louisville, said Stewart "has contributed something priceless to America, something thought lost - a sense of its finer self."

Stewart and her former stockbroker, Peter Bacanovic, were convicted of lying to investigators about why Stewart sold 3,928 shares of ImClone Systems Inc. stock in December 2001, just before the price plunged.

Prosecutors said it was because of a tip that now-jailed ImClone CEO Sam Waksal was selling his shares, but Stewart and the broker maintained they had a prior plan to sell ImClone at $60 per share. It now trades around $80.

In the event of a prison sentence, lawyers for Stewart are expected to ask the judge to delay her incarceration date while they challenge her conviction in the federal appeals court in New York.

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons would determine in which prison Stewart does her time, most likely a minimum-security women's facility in Danbury, Conn., or Alderson, W.Va.

The judge also has the option of allowing Stewart and Bacanovic to serve as much as half of their sentences in halfway houses, or in home confinement - a punishment that would require them to wear electronic monitoring devices.