MADISON, Wis. — A judge has sentenced a man to 30 years in prison for stabbing another man to death in Fitchburg last September.

Dane County Circuit Judge William Hanrahan called 25-year-old Dominique Hale a "significant threat to the public safety" as he sentenced him for second-degree intentional homicide in the death 39-year-old Willie Taylor.

Taylor was at the apartment of Hale's former girlfriend when Hale forced his way in and confronted Taylor, stabbing him in the heart. Hale claimed self-defense.

The Wisconsin State Journal reports (http://bit.ly/113uBjY ) Hale gotten out of prison 15 months earlier. He'd been sentenced to five years for his role in the torture of a man in the town of Cottage Grove in 2007, but got out six months early after convincing a judge he posed no danger to society.