Colo. court says death row inmate got fair trial

The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a challenge of a state Court of Appeals ruling that upheld the conviction of a death row inmate.

The appeals court ruled that Sir Mario Owens received a fair trial in 2007 when he was convicted of first-degree murder in the 2004 slaying of Gregory Vann in Aurora and sentenced to life without parole.

Owens was given an additional 64 years in prison for trying to kill Javad Marshall-Fields and Alvin Bell. Both men survived.

Marshall-Fields was scheduled to testify against Owens, but he and his fiancee, Vivian Wolfe, were gunned down in June 2005 just days before he was to take the stand.

Owens was convicted in 2008 in the slayings of Marshall-Fields and Wolfe and was sentenced to death.