A 35-year-old woman who killed a friend who had given her a place to stay at his apartment near downtown Portland was sentenced Thursday to 18 years in prison.

Paris McConville confessed to strangling and stabbing Ryan D. Thompson, 35, on Aug. 21, 2017.

McConville moved Thompson's body into a bathtub, bound his hands with packing tape and 17 hours later walked into Central Precinct to report the crime to police, investigators said.

Prosecutors are unsure why McConville killed Thompson, but the two had been friends for 10 years and Thompson had recently invited McConville to live with him in his apartment at 730 S.W. St. Clair Ave. McConville, a transgender woman, had been homeless, unemployed and living off food stamps.

Ryan Thompson was killed on Aug. 21, 2017.

Investigators believe that the pair might have been arguing for days leading up to the killing. McConville told police she was acting in self-defense, but she struggled Thursday to provide an explanation why she killed Thompson.

She said she was sorry, then spent the next few minutes going off on a strange tangent about dental staff in the Multnomah County jail system. Prosecutors believe McConville struggles with mental health problems.

McConville pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and second-degree assault and was sentenced immediately in Multnomah County Circuit Court. A deputy medical examiner determined Thompson died by strangulation, but also had suffered a knife wound to one of his arms and blunt-force injuries to his body.

McConville originally was charged with murder and faced a sentence of life in prison with a minimum 25 years if convicted of that charge.

Defense attorney Jason Steen said it was “very rare” for murder defendants to turn themselves into police.

“She did that on her own, before she had an attorney. ... I find Paris to be a bit mysterious, but one thing that seemed very clear to me is that right from the start, she was sorry,” Steen said.

Four of Thompson’s relatives spoke about their deep love for him and the tremendous grief that has followed his death.

Thompson’s father said his son was an expert on famous diamonds and calligraphy and had worked at a fine jewelry store. David Thompson said his son also was an artist and beautiful writer who shunned typing on keyboards and instead preferred to write everything out by hand.

Thompson’s sister described the unsettling feeling that began to form when her brother didn’t show up to work on Aug. 22 and he didn’t answer his phone either.

Cecily Thompson-Thiel said her family has fallen into a deep depression, and she now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder out of fear that something bad will happen to one of her other family members.

"He lost his life because he trusted the wrong person," Thompson-Thiel said.

-- Aimee Green