SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) _ A northern Indiana man who fled to Africa following the fatal stabbing of an 84-year-old woman during a home invasion has been sentenced to 60 years in prison.
 
  William Karimu had pleaded guilty last month to one count of murder for fatally stabbing Lois Hickey in December 2011 in her Mishawaka home.
 
  But WSBT-TV reports the 19-year-old Karimu claimed during Tuesday’s sentencing hearing that he killed the elderly woman in self-defense. He told the court, “I could have took the situation better, but she did attack me first.”
 
  Judge Jane Woodward Miller expressed surprise at Karimu’s statement, telling him, “You broke into her home and it was self-defense?”
 
  Karimu was arrested in August in his native Sierra Leone, the African nation where he fled after the killing.