MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A jury in Memphis has convicted a man of first-degree murder in his girlfriend’s stabbing death 2 ½ years ago.

Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich said in a news release Friday that 57-year-old Maurice Blocker was convicted by a Criminal Court jury in the April 2012 death of 44-year-old Laticia Boddie. The news release said Blocker was automatically sentenced to life in prison.

The prosecutor’s office says Blocker became angry when he and Boddie were visiting friends and began punching and kicking her, then stabbed her with a knife when she fell while trying to get away.

Boddie died of her wounds later at a hospital.

Blocker was arrested in California about two months later.