LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday upheld the first-degree murder convictions of an Omaha man for killing two people in separate shootings in August 2015.
Preston Pope is serving two life sentences for the deaths of DePrecia Neelon and Garion Johnson. Pope appealed his 2018 convictins, arguing that the trial court’s jury instructions were faulty and questioning the legality of police collection of his DNA, among other things.
In an opinion Friday, the state’s high court found that Pope’s were either without merit or weren’t brought up at trial and so weren’t eligible for appellate review.
Neelon was found dead outside her home on Aug. 6, 2015, after police and firefighters were called to a house on fire in northeast Omaha. Police determined she had been shot to death when she went onto the home’s back stoop to put out a small fire that had been started there. Investigators believe she was targeted because she had witnessed Pope fire a gun at a man a day earlier.
Police say Johnson was shot to death three days later in his car when he was ambushed by Pope and another man.
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