A 31-year-old man who fatally stabbed another man in the chest during a late-night scuffle outside the victim's South St. Paul home has been sentenced to nearly eight years in prison.

Anthony B. Bartz, of West St. Paul, was sentenced Wednesday in Dakota County District Court on a first-degree manslaughter charge for killing James Newman Frank, 36, on Oct. 28, 2015. With credit for time served in jail since his arrest, Bartz will spend slightly more than 4½ years in prison and then the balance on supervised release.

Prosecutors say Frank's roommate called police about 2 a.m. after he saw Frank collapse and die during a confrontation with Bartz down the street from the house in the 400 block of 4th Avenue S.

Bartz drank with the two roommates and a female friend in the hours before the stabbing, the complaint said. Frank's roommate told police that Frank escorted Bartz from the home after he began to touch the woman, who had "passed out," the charging document continued.

Bartz initially told police that Frank fell on the knife during the fight before saying that he ran into it. But when he was told Frank died, Bartz became upset and said "that he never meant for it to happen," according to the complaint.

Bartz's criminal history in Minnesota includes convictions for domestic abuse, drunken driving and assault.

James N. Frank

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482