(L-R) Tyler Thomas and Joshua Keadle

(KLZA)--The Nebraska Supreme Court issued a decision Friday which denied the request of Joshua Keadle for a new trial in the 2010 killing of Peru State student Tyler Thomas who was 19 at the time.
The now 44-year-old Keadle is serving a sentence of 71 years to life in prison on a conviction of second-degree murder. 
Friday's Supreme Court ruling rejected an argument that Gage County District Court Judge Rick Schreiner erred when he ruled Keadle's two attorney's provided an effective defense.  The ruling stated that Keadle's arguments were without merit. 
Thomas was from Omaha.  She disappeared on December 3, 2010, after an early-morning visit with Keadle to the boat launch on the Missouri river about two miles north of the Peru State campus.  Her body has never been recovered. 
Keadle was a student at Peru State at the time Thomas disappeared.  By the time he was charged in her death,  Keadle was already in prison on a conviction of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in Fremont in 2008.
Keadle was convicted in Thomas' death by a jury in Gage County in 2020.
This is the second time the Supreme Court upheld Keadle's murder conviction.
In 2022, the court rejected Keadle's argument the evidence was insufficient to find him guilty of Thomas' death.
Keadle will be eligible for parole in 2054.