Ky. Court Upholds Murder Accomplice's Conviction

(Burlington, Ky.) - A Boone County convict serving 50 years for complicity to murder has lost a battle to overturn his conviction.

Leonard William Day, 49, of North Carolina, was convicted in 1999 for his role in the death of Tina Rae Stevens, Day’s former girlfriend who disappeared from a Burlington hotel. Stevens’ remains were found a year later in rural Boone County.

Day’s girlfriend at the time of the murder, 52-year-old Deborah Huiett, is serving a life sentence. Witnesses testified that Huiett had stabbed Stevens to death when Huiett found Day and Stevens together in the hotel room.

Day had appealed his conviction to the Kentucky Court of Appeals arguing his defense attorney made bad strategic decisions in handling witnesses and putting witnesses on the stand, the Associated Press reports.

Judges ruled Friday agreeing that Day’s defense was reasonable.

The trial attorney concluded it would be more beneficial to put on no witness rather than one that was unreliable, Judge Christopher Shea Nickell wrote in the decision.

Day had also claimed in his appeal that he did not have access to the hotel room where Stevens was murdered. A hotel receipt for the room did not include Day’s name.

"The receipt, alone, does not establish his innocence," Nickell wrote.