The roommate of an Alabama man found choked to death in a Perryville motel Friday was charged yesterday with second-degree murder.

Police said Thomas E. Maynard, 36, of Garrett, Ind., choked Ricky L. Frudiker, 39, of Loxley, Ala., during a fight in their room at a Relax Inn. The men had been living at the motel, in the 5700 block of Pulaski Highway, for at least a month while working as construction workers at a power plant being built on the Maryland-Pennsylvania line.

Maynard, who was arrested at the scene Friday, is being held at the Cecil County Detention Center on $100,000 bail.

The police said that the men had been arguing over lodging arrangements for a visit by out-of-town family.