NASHUA, N.H. (AP) – Stephen Mann, who told jurors he was high on drugs and alcohol when he killed his wife last year was convicted Thursday of first-degree murder.

Mann, 33, acting as his own lawyer, said in closing arguments he didn’t know what he was doing when he killed Kelly Mann, 32, after she slapped him and told him she had slept with his best friend.

He said he had not planned the attack, and argued he should have been charged with manslaughter. First-degree murder is punishable by life in prison without parole; manslaughter carries a 30-year term.

Mann was charged with bludgeoning his wife in July 2004 and shooting her while their three daughters were in the house in Nashua. Mann then fled to Canada where he was arrested after driving his car into a ditch in Toronto.

Assistant Attorney General David Ruoff said Mann knew his wife was leaving him and he decided to kill her.

“You’re despicable. You’ll never be forgiven,” said Elizabeth Krahenbuhle, a friend of Kelly Mann who went out with her the night of the killing. “I only hope that your time in prison is as brutal as what you did to Kelly.”

The judge told Mann, “It’s clear that everything in your life is about you and only you.”