A Houston man was sentenced Wednesday to 38 years in prison by a Harris County jury for the fatal stabbing of his neighbor in the East End in 2019, District Attorney Kim Ogg announced.

“This case is absolutely heartrending and tragic because there was absolutely no reason that a conflict between neighbors should escalate to murder,” Ogg said. “We thank the jurors who held this defendant accountable and sentenced him to prison.”

Stuart Simonton, 58, was convicted Tuesday of murder for stabbing 59-year-old Angelina Wiseman Gailey in the front yard of the duplex they shared on Harrisburg on April 3, 2019.

Simonton and Gailey had a history of arguing. On that day, Gailey was having a family barbecue in the yard. Stuart called the fire department and police about 9 p.m. because of smoke coming from Gailey’s small firepit.

Firefighters arrived with at least five vehicles because it had been called in as an apartment fire. Once they realized that the fire was under control, they loaded up and left. Officers with the Houston Police Department spoke to everyone involved and calmed the situation down. Everyone appeared to go to their apartments for the night, and police officers kept an eye of the duplex until things seemed to be peaceful.

Around 11 p.m., Gailey was sitting outside, and Simonton came outside and stabbed her three times with a long filet knife where she was sitting. Neighbors heard the commotion and called police. Simonton was detained and gave police several different accounts of what happened.

This week, Simonton was convicted of murder on Tuesday and was sentenced late Wednesday to 38 years in prison after eight days of trial. He will have to serve at least half of the sentence before he is eligible for parole.

Assistant District Attorney Hunter Brown, who prosecuted the case with Rebecca Marshall, a chief in the DA’s trial bureau, said jurors recognized that Simonton saw an opening and took it.

“He hated her, he wanted to kill her and when she sat down near his apartment, he took the opportunity to kill her,” Brown said. “He was a predator lying in wait.”

Brown noted Gailey was a beloved family matriarch and that now she is not alive to watch her two children and grandchildren.

“This family was robbed of their mother — they will never get her back, and no one should lose their mother like that,” Brown said. “She did not even live to see her daughter’s wedding.”