Devon Saunders, 58, has been sentenced to nine years in prison for the 2022 killing of fellow inmate Leslie Ma at Beaver Creek Institution in Gravenhurst, Ontario.

According to CTV News, Saunders was convicted of manslaughter after a jury acquitted him of murder in June. He admitted to stabbing the 30-year-old Ma in the prison kitchen on Dec. 18, 2022, but maintained that he acted in self-defence, claiming he feared Ma and others were planning to kill him following an earlier altercation.

Ma had been serving a 12-year sentence for drug trafficking offences involving cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl at the time of his death.

Saunders was already serving a life sentence for the 2008 murder of his former girlfriend, Shernell Pierre, in Edmonton. Pierre was shot in the head inside her car, which was later found burned near West Edmonton Mall. Saunders was convicted in 2015 and has continued to maintain his innocence. He is not eligible for parole until 2037.

The Crown had sought an 18-year sentence for Ma’s killing, while the defence argued for six years. The judge ultimately imposed a nine-year sentence, which will run concurrently with Saunders’s existing life sentence.