WOBURN - A Dorchester man was sentenced to 33-35 years in prison on Thursday following his conviction in a brutal stabbing incident on Green Street three years ago.

Victor Figueroa, 60, was convicted last week by a Middlesex Superior Court jury of mayhem and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury.

He was found not guilty of armed assault with intent to murder.

Judge Diane Kottmyer sentenced Figueroa, who has a long history of violent crimes, to the nearly maximum allowable 19-20 years on the mayhem charge and 14-15 years on the assault and battery charge.

On March 17, 2005, Figueroa reportedly slashed Sheila F. Costa, 40, just below one of her ears, across the neck to her opposite cheek, and another time in the back.

Costa and Figueroa had just been dropped off at an MBTA bus stop near the corner of Main and Green streets. Costa is an employee of a maid service on Green Street, and Figueroa had apparently accompanied her on the bus to work.

The suspect and the victim were reportedly in a "semi-dating relationship" that Costa was trying to end.

The stabbing occurred outside a small strip mall. After she was cut, Costa apparently ran toward the building in which she works, while Figueroa ran south on Main Street.

Figueroa got as far as Fowle Street, where he was captured by officer Dana Gately.

Court documents indicate Figueroa was convicted of assault to kill and other related charges stemming from an incident in Boston in 1988, and was sentenced to serve a 15-20 year term in MCI-Cedar Junction.

Figueroa was apparently released from prison sometime in 2004.

In September of that year, he was reportedly arrested for issuing threats, but the charges were dropped in Boston District Court two months before the Green Street stabbing.

After she was stabbed, Costa was reportedly taken to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston by Woburn Fire Department rescue crews and paramedics.

Among those who testified for the prosecution, which was led by Middlesex Asst. District Attorney Suzanne Kontz, were officer Gately, detectives Timothy Donovan, Elizabeth Higgins and William Coakley, Sgt. Paul Connolly, and patrolmen John Lally, Richard Jolly, Charles Stokes Sr. and (since retired) Robert Palmacci.

Woburn Fire Department EMT Edward McCabe, who along with EMT Ken Robishaw treated the victim at the scene, also testified.