A South St. Paul man who had claimed self-defense has been given a life sentence for fatally stabbing a woman in his home.

Thomas M. Luby, 59, was sentenced Monday in Dakota County District Court after being found guilty last month of first- and second-degree murder in the death last summer of Kelly Ann Anderson, 45, of South St. Paul.

According to investigators, Luby told a 911 dispatcher on Aug. 7, 2015, that there was a dead woman in his home and that she was dead "because I killed her."

Officers arrived at the home in the 500 block of 9th Avenue S. and found Anderson on the living room floor, a large kitchen knife in her right hand.

According to a search warrant in court, Luby said he didn't know how the knife got there.

Luby did tell officers that he and Anderson had been drinking when she became upset with him and stabbed him in the neck. He then stabbed her, he said, in self-defense.

An autopsy revealed that Anderson had two deep cuts consistent with defensive wounds, as well as deep cuts on her jawline and stab wounds to her chin, mouth and neck.

She died of the wounds to her neck that severed her jugular vein and carotid artery. Luby had two small cut marks under his chin.

Anderson was survived by a son and a daughter.