KNOXVILLE — A state appeals court shot down five issues raised by defense attorneys in the murder conviction of John Wayne Blair, upholding the rulings that sent him to prison for life for brutally killing his neighbor on English Mountain.

A Sevier County jury convicted Blair in 2007 for first-degree murder in the death of Kelly Estelle Sellers. Sellers’s body was found hidden off a trail on the mountain in April 2005, after a massive search.

The jury found that Blair raped and killed Sellers at his home, then hid her body. Jurors could have sentenced him to death, but instead gave him life without the possibility of parole.

Public Defender Ed Miller appealed the judgment, citing five grounds. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Circuit Judge Rex Henry Ogle in all five.

Miller argued that the Ogle erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence from a search warrant that was obtained in part based on a statement by a neighbor the defense presented as an alternate suspect for the crime.

The appellate court found that the man was identified as a citizen informant, but would have been qualified as a witness even if he were considered a criminal informant.

It also found that some minor discrepancies in records kept by the court, and irregularities in the dates, did not disqualify the records used in the warrant.

Miller also claimed the court erred by using a digital system to select the jury pool, rather than drawing names from a locked box, as described in some state statutes.

“The defendant did not raise in his motion for new trial or in this appeal any allegations of fraud,” the court noted.

Miller challenged the use of some gruesome photographs of Sellers’ body, nothing that one juror became ill while they were displayed.

“The record likewise reflects the courtroom was hot and that the trial court made several references during the trial to the unpleasant temperature and malfunctioning air conditioning in the courtroom,” the court noted.

As part of that ruling, the appellate court also found that Ogle gave proper instructions to the jury as he sent the panel to deliberate.

The court found Ogle erred by allowing Sheriff’s Detective Matthew Cubberly to testify that he had investigated and corroborated the alibi of the neighbor the defense presented as a suspect, but that the error “was harmless in light of the overwhelming proof of the defendant’s guilt.”

Ogle didn’t err in allowing Cubberly and prosecutors to address the defense’s assertion that the man was responsible for the crime, but should not have allowed him to testify that other witnesses had backed up that alibi. “The evidence that the alibi ‘checked out’ was erroneously admitted,” according to the court.

Finally, Miller claimed Ogle should not have allowed mitochondrial DNA evidence to be used in the trial. He said there should have been a pretrial reliability hearing on that evidence.

“The record reflects this evidence was adduced and that the defendant cross-examined the witness extensively about the limits of mitochondrial DNA testing,” the appellate court ruled.

Blair is being held at the state’s special needs facility for prisoners, according to the Tennessee Department of Correction.

jfarrell@themountainpress.com