The Georgia Supreme Court turned down a novel defense theory Monday and unanimously upheld the malice murder conviction and life-without-parole prison sentence for the murder of a Jesup municipal court judge and longtime district attorney of the Brunswick Judicial Circuit.

“Bobby Rex Stribling, Jr. appeals his convictions for malice murder and other crimes arising from the fatal beating of William Glenn Thomas, Jr.,” Justice Nels Peterson wrote. “Thomas was placed in a medically induced coma and on a ventilator as a result of the beating, but was taken off the ventilator when his condition failed to improve. On appeal, Stribling’s sole argument is that the evidence was insufficient to convict him, because there was evidence that Thomas might have survived had life support not been withdrawn.”