Yoder Blalock was sentenced Friday in Anchorage Superior Court to 45 years in prison for killing a local man with a bayonet, according to a prosecutor.
State prosecutors said Blalock, 38, intended to kill Nathan "Nate" Tanape, whom he pepper-sprayed before striking multiple times with a short sword shortly after he injected methamphetamine on a night in October 2011.
The defense had argued Blalock attacked Tanape in self-defense.
The case's conclusion has been a long time coming. Charges of second-degree murder and tampering with evidence were tossed about year after Blalock's arrest after his motion to dismiss. The state quickly re-filed the murder charge, but years of back-and-forth over written petitions delayed the case.
Jurors convicted Blalock in August. Judge Jack Smith also imposed 10 years of felony probation Friday.
Assistant attorney general Robert Henderson said in an email that Blalock was on probation for a third-degree assault charge at the time of the murder. The nearly two years of remaining jail time from that case were imposed too, he said.
"Yoder Blalock has been in trouble with the law since he was 15 years old. Violence has been his staple," the state wrote in its sentencing memorandum.
Smith refused the defense's argument, which could have shortened Blalock's sentence, of "imperfect self-defense," according to the prosecutor.
The judge noted, "Mr. Blalock's decision to go back to his vehicle and arm himself with a weapon was entirely unreasonable," Henderson said.