MAYS LANDING, N.J. (AP)  -- An Atlantic City man has been sentenced to nine years in prison for killing another man by smashing him in the head with a 2-by-4 piece of lumber.

Larry Goss told a Superior Court judge Friday that he acted in self-defense in the July 2005 slaying of Christopher McDonough.

Goss says the two men had been quarreling over a drug deal gone bad.

Goss must serve 85 percent of his sentence before becoming eligible for parole.