LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday rejected the postconviction appeal of an Omaha man serving life in prison for the 2017 shooting death of another man.
Malik Stelly had argued in his appeal that a lower court wrongly rejected his appeal without first holding an evidentiary hearing. But the state’s high court agreed with the lower court that Stelly’s claims of prosecutorial misconduct and ineffective representation by his trial and appeal lawyers were either filed too late to consider or lacked factual evidence and had already been proven wrong in court.
Stelly was convicted of first-degree murder for the Jan. 11, 2017, shooting death of 28-year-old D’Angelo Branch in northeast Omaha.
Prosecutors had said the shooting was particularly callus, noting that Stelly did not know Branch, who was described as developmentally disabled. Prosecutors said Stelly was carrying out “target practice” in shooting Branch.
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