LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has denied an Omaha man’s quest for freedom, saying he failed to show his lawyer put on such a poor defense that it kept him from getting a fair trial.

Ryan Poe is serving a life sentence for the Nov. 11, 2004 killing of Trever Lee in a botched robbery at Lee’s Omaha home.

Poe had filed a motion for post-conviction relief, typically sought after all other appeals have been exhausted.

On Friday, the high court upheld a lower court’s finding that Poe’s attorney wasn’t negligent for not impeaching the testimony of a witness against Poe. The lower court found that Poe’s girlfriend never told the defense attorney — as Poe insists — that the witness denied to her that Poe had committed the crime.