NEWARK, N.J. — A New Jersey man convicted of fatally stabbing his roommate after the victim told him he had to move out because he wasn’t paying rent has been sentenced to 45 years in prison.

Edwin Andujar was sentenced Thursday. The 53-year-old will have to serve at least 38 years before he is eligible for parole.

Essex County prosecutors said he stabbed Thomas Parent 12 times with a steak knife while Parent was in a wheelchair after returning from a rehabilitation center.

Andujar said the stabbing in August 2014 was in self-defense, but a jury rejected that claim.

He said Thursday that he was “really, really sorry about what happened to Thomas Parent because he was my friend.”