LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has upheld the first-degree murder conviction of a Grand Island man who fatally shot a co-worker outside a south-central Nebraska meatpacking plant.

Angelo Bol was sentenced in July to life in prison for the Dec. 15, 2014, killing of 34-year-old Karel Perez-Almaguer in the parking lot of Gibbon Packing in Gibbon. Prosecutors say Bol had been fired that day over a fight a day earlier involving Perez-Almaguer.

In his appeal, Bol argued that the trial court should not have accepted his no-contest plea and that he should have been appointed an interpreter because he had trouble understanding English.

On Friday, the state’s high court rejected that argument, saying Bol could comprehend the trial proceedings and communicate in English.