LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has rejected a post-conviction relief motion by a man sentenced to 30 to 40 years in prison for raping a teenage newspaper carrier in western Nebraska.

Jeffrey Hessler, of Gering, was convicted in 2004 after pleading no contest to the child sexual assault charge.

He appealed to the state’s Supreme Court this year when a lower court rejected the motion, saying the lower court should have found that his trial lawyer was ineffective and that he was too mentally ill to plead no contest. The high court said Friday that his arguments were without merit.

Hessler is also on death row for kidnapping, raping and killing another newspaper carrier — 15-year-old Heather Guerrero — in 2003.