Tyler Condon, convicted last year of murdering his cousin on the Fourth of July in 2007, was sentenced yesterday to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Condon's lawyer, Edward Aquino, repeated his client's assertion, made during a jury trial last year, that Condon was "defending himself" when he stabbed Jake Hale to death in an 'Ewa Beach home.

Condon said nothing at yesterday morning's sentencing.

Circuit Judge Karen Ahn handed down the mandatory sentence.

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Franklin Pacarro Jr. last year called the killing "a brutal crime" and disputed Condon's claims of self-defense, saying the defendant had no wounds on his body.

Hale was stabbed multiple times. One 5-inch wound hit the victim's lung and perforated his liver. Another severed his kidney and renal artery, the prosecutor said.