Kansas City, Mo. ? A Kansas City man convicted of murdering another motorist who had cursed him and his son in traffic has been sentenced to 22 years in prison.

Thomas M. Brown Sr., 52, said in court Wednesday that he “wouldn’t last two years in prison” because he has diabetes and a nerve disease and uses an oxygen tank and a walker.

Jackson County Circuit Judge Edith Messina sentenced him to 22 years for second-degree murder and five years for armed criminal action, to be served concurrently.

Prosecutors said Brown and his son tracked 29-year-old Edward Chacon to a Waffle House restaurant near downtown Kansas City about 4 a.m. on April 8, 2001, and took a hammer and folding knife inside to confront him.

Chacon, who weighed about 115 pounds, suffered fatal stab wounds in the fight with the two men, who weighed more than 300 pounds each.

Brown disputed authorities’ version during his trial in August, saying Chacon had attacked him and his 26-year-old son, Thomas Brown Jr., with a butter knife and with the hammer. The father said they noticed Chacon after going into the restaurant to eat and use the rest room.

“It wasn’t murder; it was a fight,” the elder Brown said Wednesday. “All I tried to do was get the guy off my son. I got to go to prison — it’s not right.”

The case against Thomas Brown Jr. is pending.