The South Dakota Supreme Court has upheld the murder conviction of Christopher Dean Kryger, who raped and strangled a Sioux Falls woman in her home in 2014.
Kryger appealed his conviction, saying the judge made errors at trial that prejudiced the jury against him, and that there wasn't enough evidence to support a guilty verdict.
At oral arguments last month, Assistant Attorney General Ann Meyers told Supreme Court justices that the jury had heard Kryger's objections to the evidence.
"This is a jury question," Meyers said. "All these things that you see in here [the appeal], these are jury questions, questions of fact the jury... they heard it at trial. They rejected it. It's no more persuasive here today than it was at trial."
The Supreme Court finds that the trial court made no prejudicial errors and that the evidence was sufficient for the jury to find Kryger guilty.
Kryger was convicted of first-degree murder, first-degree burglary, and second-degree rape. He is confined to the state penitentiary, where he serves a sentence of life without possibility of parole.
