Twice Convicted Murderer Looks For Third Trial

The appeal in the case of a man twice found guilty of killing his estranged wife in Bedford County in December 2007 took another step this week before a panel of judges in Roanoke. According the News & Advance, a three-judge panel of the Virginia Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in the case of Wesley Earnest, whose attorney claims the judge erred in keeping a fingerprint expert from testifying for the defense during Earnest’s second trial. Earnest was originally in Bedford County in 2010; he received a second trial in Amherst County later that year, after a mistrial was declared in the first case. Upon his second conviction, Earnest received a sentence of life plus three years.