By Billy Davis

The Mississippi Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from convicted murderer Dennis Cosby, according to the Associated Press.

Cosby was convicted by a jury and sentenced to life in prison in August 2009 for the murder of his wife, Windy Cosby, in 2007.

Mr. Cosby was set to plead guilty to murder at a court hearing when he claimed, from the witness stand, that his wife had jumped off a Tallahatchie River bridge. That reversal set up a two-day jury trial in Batesville, where jurors deliberated for just 28 minutes before announcing a verdict to Judge Andrew C. Baker.

At the trial, Cosby fumbled along on the witness stand, at points giving four different accounts of his late wife’s death to District Attorney John Champion.

Cosby also established a motive for the murder when he told Champion that money from a Social Security check was providing food and medicine for them instead of fueling Windy Cosby’s cocaine habit.

Baker sentenced Cosby that afternoon, reminding him that prosecutors had offered a manslaughter plea, which he refused to accept, prior to the trial.  

Public defender David Walker had represented Cosby at trial and Baker said from the bench that Walker had worked hard on behalf of his client.    

After the jury conviction, Champion told Mrs. Cosby’s family members that Mr. Cosby, then 55, would be eligible to seek parole after 15 years due to his age.

Cosby’s conviction was upheld last year by the state Court of Appeals, the Associated Press reported.