A two-year-old murder case has come to a close.

Inocensio Noveron, 34, accused of the Nov. 10, 2004, stabbing death of Misael Millan-Bustos, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and has been sentenced by Cullman County Circuit Court Judge Don Hardeman to five years in state prison.

Noveron was originally charged and indicted for murder in the death of his roommate, but District Attorney Wilson Blaylock said Wednesday he feels the manslaughter conviction is appropriate “given the circumstances in this case.”

“What we basically had were two men who had been drinking heavily. At the request of the victim, the defendant cut the victim’s hair. Afterward, the victim wasn’t happy with his haircut and an argument ensued,” Blaylock said. “In the beginning, the victim chased the defendant around the apartment the two shared on Lessman Circle, but at some point the argument escalated and the defendant turned on the victim with a large butcher knife and stabbed him multiple times. Autopsy results showed Bustos died as a result of those wounds.”

Bustos’ body was discovered by a neighbor lying on a second-floor balcony at a Lessman Circle Southwest apartment around 6 a.m. Nov. 11, 2004. A kitchen knife identified as the murder weapon, was recovered at the scene.

Local authorities spent the next six weeks searching for Noveron, who fled the scene after the stabbing.

He was later arrested the night of Jan. 27, 2005, at an apartment in Nashville, where he had apparently been living since the murder of Bustos, 21, of Santa Maria, Mexico.

Because the murder apparently occurred in the heat of the moment as the two men were embroiled in a bitter argument, Blaylock said he feels Noveron’s plea to manslaughter is justified in this case.

“We considered all the evidence and testimony from witnesses and determined this was a crime committed in the heat of passion, and as such, justified a charge of manslaughter,” Blaylock said. “In addition to imprisonment, a U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service hold has been placed on Noveron, who is in the country illegally. Once he completes his jail time, he will be remanded to the INS and deported back to Mexico.”