This week, a judge turned down a plea for a retrial from an ex-police officer convicted of murdering a Georgia teenager in 2022.

According to WXIA, Miles Bryant’s defense contended that his initial trial was compromised due to inadequate legal representation. Additionally, Bryant challenged the inclusion of Life360 data as evidence. However, after considering arguments in February, the judge dismissed the appeal, as covered by WSB.

Sentenced to life imprisonment without parole, Bryant was convicted on multiple charges, including malice murder, felony murder, kidnapping, and filing a false crime report, for the killing of Susana Morales.

Morales vanished in July 2022, and her decaying body was discovered seven months later, CrimeOnline detailed. Investigators located Bryant’s firearm, which he had reported missing shortly after Morales disappeared, near her remains.

During Bryant’s trial in July 2024, Gwinnett Police Detective Angela Carter testified that cell phone data placed Bryant at the location where Morales’s body was discovered. She also revealed that he had conducted several online searches linked to the teen’s disappearance, including checks on a site monitoring license plate recognition cameras for his own plate number.

Investigators further uncovered that Bryant had searched Google for information on the decomposition timeline of a body.

Bryant was fired from his job as a Doraville Police officer after his arrest.

Bryant’s attorney is appealing the judge’s ruling denying him a new trial to the Georgia Supreme Court, WSB said.