The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal from convicted murderer Richard Jackson Jacobs, who was seeking a new trial for a slaying in Jackson County.

Jacobs was given a life sentence in 2001 for the murder of a friend’s stepfather. He was one of four people charged.

Prosecutors said Jacobs and the others hatched a plot to kill Robert Bruce Martin and steal his car and money.

According to the court record, Jacobs admitted pulling the trigger of the shotgun that one of the three co-defendants had stuck in Martin’s mouth while he slept. Jacobs claimed one of others held a gun to his head although the gun was not found, authorities said.

The teenagers fled Martin’s mobile home in Vancleave after the murder and drove to Texas, where they were later arrested.

The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld Jacobs’ conviction in 2004. Last year, the Mississippi court refused to allow Jacobs to pursue a challenge that his sentence was illegal.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Jacobs’ appeal.