ALBANY (AP) -- An appeals court has upheld the conviction of Ralph "Bucky" Phillips, who killed a state trooper in 2006 and was the subject of the largest manhunt in New York state history.
The unanimous ruling from the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court in Albany rejected Phillips' claims that his guilty plea was coerced and that he'd gotten bad advice from a court-appointed lawyer.
The 47-year-old Phillips is serving a life sentence without possibility of parole after telling a judge in 2006 that he was "guilty as hell" of a litany of murder and other charges. The career thief admitted fatally shooting Trooper Joseph Longobardo and wounding two other troopers after escaping from a western New York jail.
He spent five months on the run.
The ruling was released Thursday.
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