A judge has upheld the murder convictions of the only person ever tried in the 1999 Valentine's Day triple slayings in Cleveland, Tenn.
Maurice Johnson was convicted in 2009 and is serving three life sentences in the deaths of O.J. Blair, Cayci Higgins and Dawn Rogers, who were shot to death in a Cleveland apartment a day after a fight between Johnson and Blair.
In a ruling filed Dec. 12, Special Judge Don Ash rejected Johnson's request for a new trial based on ineffective assistance of counsel, a constitutional claim. Johnson had argued his attorneys failed to properly prepare and present the case.
He is the only one of three people charged in the Valentine's Day slayings to go through a complete trial. He was convicted in August 2009.
Prosecutors charged that Johnson was with Michael "Money" Younger and Twanna "Tart" Blair in the Cleveland apartment where the three victims were shot execution-style.
Blair also was shot in the apartment and initially was considered a victim, but investigators later said she was among the attackers. Her charges eventually were dismissed.
Younger's 2010 trial ended in a mistrial after a prosecutor. He was re-indicted early in 2014 but the new charges were dropped when Steve Crump replaced Steve Bebb as 10th Judicial District Attorney in July 2014.
Part of Johnson's post-conviction petition claimed allegations of prosecutorial and investigative error raised in Younger's trial should should be considered in his case.
But in a 70-page ruling, Ash rejected those claims as either irrelevant to Johnson's case or issues that were not raised during his trial and therefore off-limits now.