A 50-year-old Minneapolis man was convicted on Friday of first-degree murder for killing his roommate during an argument while they smoked crack.

Jurors in Hennepin County District Court found Alfunda Scruggs guilty of beating, strangling and stabbing 45-year-old Michael Moulion Fonta last year in an apartment in the 300 block of 8th Street SE.

Scruggs' presumptive sentence will be life in prison without parole.

Scruggs' girlfriend, Hope Christina Jackson, also known as Hope Cook, 39, was charged with being an accomplice after the fact and remains in jail in lieu of $1 million bail.

According to charges against the couple:

Jackson told investigators that she, Scruggs and Fonta had smoked crack in the apartment and that Fonta had started calling her "bitch." She said Scruggs got angry, punched Fonta several times and said, "She's my bitch, and I am the only one that can call her that."

She said Scruggs also threw Fonta to the floor, kicked him, then sat on him and strangled him with a strap.

Scruggs then stabbed Fonta in the neck with a knife or screwdriver until he was motionless, Jackson said.

PAUL WALSH