WINNIPEG — A Winnipeg man has been sentenced to seven years in prison for fatally stabbing another man in the neck.

Robert Prince, 45, was convicted of manslaughter following a trial last November.

Darryl Sinclair, 45, died in July 2011 after he was stabbed once in the neck during an altercation in the fifth-floor hallway of his apartment building. Both Prince and Sinclair had been drinking.

“Alcoholism played a major role in this offence and affected both Mr. Sinclair and Mr. Prince,” said Justice Robert Dewar.

Prince admitted stabbing Sinclair but claimed he never intended to kill him.

Jurors heard Sinclair and his girlfriend had joined Prince in his seventh-floor apartment when Sinclair and his girlfriend got into an argument. Sinclair struck the woman in the face and left the apartment. Prince followed him a short time later, armed with a knife.

Prince told police he only wanted to “scare (Sinclair) off” and claimed Sinclair “came at him.”