A man convicted of stabbing a man in the Dallas Avenue Winn Dixie was sentenced Tuesday.

Robert Fitts was sentenced to 15 years in prison by Dallas County Circuit Judge Jack Meigs on Tuesday for first-degree assault in the stabbing of another individual.

The case began in October 2008 when Fitts chased down Eldred Fuller in a road rage incident that ended at the Winn Dixie on Dallas Avenue with Fitts stabbing Fuller.

According to a report from District Attorney Michael Jackson’s office, the incident occurred Oct. 24, 2008 and “the defendant got angry because the victim pulled out in front of him on a street near Winn Dixie.”

According to report, both men got into an argument in the parking lot of the store, then “both entered the store and came upon each other in the store and started back arguing. The defendant then bumped the victim with his shoulder then stabbed him in the stomach.”

As a result of the stabbing, Fuller had to receive emergency surgery because the main artery in his abdominal wall had been cut.

Fuller was transported to UAB in Birmingham where he was in intensive care and had to have surgery on his intestines.

Jackson said that Fitts argued self-defense at the trial last month.

“At the trial, the defendant argued that the victim was a bigger man, and that the victim threatened him so he argued self-defense and that he had no duty to retreat, and he felt threatened,” Jackson said. “The jury did not buy that line of defense because he got mad and stabbed an unarmed man.”