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MILLER COUNTY, Ga. (WALB) - The Georgia Supreme Court announced Tuesday, March 3, that they have denied the appeal of a South Georgia man who was convicted of murder. His sentence stands, meaning he will remain in prison for life.

Ralph Rogers of Colquitt was arrested in 2015 and charged with the murder of Lamaris Miller. He also was charged with two counts of aggravated assault for the shootings of Damien Lee and Levontia Burr.

Rogers’ attorneys filed a motion with the Georgia Supreme Court to overturn his life sentence based on claims that “the evidence was insufficient...to support his convictions because he acted in self-defense.”

The shootings happened after a confrontation at an apartment complex in Miller County, officials said.

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According to the Supreme Court’s ruling, Rogers “contends that the evidence showed that Burr, Lamaris, and Lee [aggressively advanced] toward Rogers, placing [him] in reasonable fear of imminent great bodily injury” before the shooting.

However, the state justices ruled that Rogers’ sentence will stand, citing that evidence presented at his trial supported his conviction.

“The only evidence of self-defense came from Rogers’s own testimony, and the jury was not required to accept Rogers’s version of events, especially in light of the other evidence at trial. Accordingly, the evidence was constitutionally sufficient to support Rogers’s convictions.”

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