<p>MUNCIE, Ind. — The U.S. Supreme Court has rebuffed a central Indiana man’s appeal of his life sentence for fatally shooting a Ball State University student in 1994 during an attempted robbery.</p>
<p>The court issued an order Monday declining to hear Larry Wayne Newton Jr.’s appeal of a Delaware County judge’s 2016 decision denying his bid for post-conviction relief, <a href="https://www.thestarpress.com/story/news/crime/2021/05/04/us-supreme-court-wont-hear-convicted-killer-larry-newton-jr-s-appeal/4939908001/">The Star Press</a> reported.</p>
<p>“The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision finally closes the book on this horrendous saga,” Delaware County Prosecutor Eric Hoffman said Tuesday in a statement.</p>
<p>Newton was 17 in September 1994 when the Muncie resident fatally shot Christopher Coyle — a 19-year-old Ball State University student from Pendleton — during an attempted off-campus robbery.</p>
<p>Newton pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, as had been specified in his plea agreement.</p>
<p>In 2016, Delaware Circuit Court Judge Linda Ralu Wolf denied Newton’s bid for post-conviction relief, ruling that he had been an “eager and willing participant” in Coyle’s killing.</p>
<p>The Indiana Supreme Court declined in December 2017 to review an Indiana Court of Appeals ruling that upheld Wolf’s ruling.</p>
<p>In his latest appeal efforts, Newton’s public defender maintained that his life sentence was unconstitutional because Newton was not yet 18 when Coyle was killed.</p>
<p>Newton, now 44, is incarcerated at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City.</p>
