CHEYENNE - The Wyoming Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of a Gillette man who ordered the killing of a boy who was to testify against him in a sexual abuse trial.

The court on Friday rejected an appeal from Kent Alan Proffit, Sr. He had been sentenced to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole following his conviction of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. A jury found that he ordered two Gillette teenagers to kill 16-year-old Bryce Chavers of Gillette.

In separate trials, Proffit also has been convicted of sexually assaulting Chavers and of murder in the 2005 killing of another teenager in Gillette, 19-year-old Jeremy Forquer.