CHEYENNE - A lawyer for Kent Alan Proffit Sr., the Gillette man convicted of ordering the killing of a boy who was to testify against him in a sexual assault case, this week urged the Wyoming Supreme Court to overturn Proffit's murder conviction.

Proffit was sentenced to life in prison last year following his conviction of ordering two Gillette teenagers to kill 16-year-old Bryce Chavers. The boy was shot in the head while sleeping in his home in 2005.

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.

Lawyer Tina Kerin on Monday told the court that Proffit didn't receive a fair trial on the charge that he murdered Chavers.

Kerin argued that District Judge John R. Perry should not have allowed the jury to hear testimony that Proffit had threatened the boy before he was killed. In addition, Kerin argued that Perry was wrong to allow the jury to consider statements that Chavers made to police accusing Proffit of committing sex crimes against him.

Kerin said that Proffit's case received so much publicity in Campbell County that it should have been moved elsewhere for trial. Failing to do so violated his rights, she said.

Kerin described the statements that Chavers gave police regarding alleged threats made by Proffit as "pretty horrific stuff." She argued that Proffit was denied his right to confront Chavers about the allegations because Proffit's sexual assault trial was held after Chavers was dead.

Leda Pojman, assistant attorney general, told the justices that Chavers' statements that Proffit had molested him and threatened to kill him were trustworthy.

"The state should not be penalized just because there's a murdered witness," Pojman said.

Pojman said the 73 articles about Proffit's case in the local newspaper were "purely factual," and caused no reason to move the trial.

The Supreme Court is also considering separate appeals from Proffit of his sexual assault conviction against Chavers and his murder conviction in directing teenagers to kill Forquer. It will issue written decisions in all three cases.