The Missouri Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of a Kansas man convicted of killing three relatives in Cole Camp, Missouri.

The court on Tuesday rejected appeals for Robert Blurton, who sought to have his convictions and sentence overturned. Blurton, of Garnett, Kansas, was sentenced to death in June 2013 for the deaths of his aunt and uncle, Donnie and Sharon Luetjen and the couple's 15-year-old granddaughter, Taron Luetjen. Prosecutors said Blurton killed his victims in June 2009 at the couple's Cole Camp home during a robbery.

Blurton's attorneys argued the trial judge made errors in allowing certain testimony and evidence, not instructing the jury on a possible second-degree murder conviction and not declaring a mistrial because some crime scene photographs were inadvertently displayed before the verdict.

Missouri Supreme Court
Kurt Parsons
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