PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A Portland mortgage broker who claimed he acted in self-defense last year when he shot and killed a friend was sentenced Monday to 43 years in prison.

Steven Clark, 29, was sentenced in Cumberland County Superior Court for the February 2006 murder of Robert Wagner, 28. Clark faced a minimum of 25 years and a maximum of life.

Clark’s father had testified that his son told him he accidentally shot Wagner in the head as the two were passing a gun back and forth in Clark’s home after a night of drinking. But the defendant changed his story on the witness stand, saying he fired two shots in self-defense after the two argued and Wagner held a knife to his head.
The sentence was handed down by Justice Robert Crowley.