AUSTIN, Texas _ A state appeals court has upheld the new 99-year prison sentence given to Bernie Tiede, whose conviction for the 1996 murder of Marjorie Nugent formed the basis of the movie "Bernie," an offbeat comedy by filmmaker Richard Linklater.
In 2014, Tiede was granted a new sentencing-phase trial after arguing that he had acted in "sudden passion" triggered by a history of childhood sexual abuse, making him eligible for no more than 20 years in prison, instead of the life sentence handed down after his original trial.
Free on bond, Tiede spent almost two years living in Austin before his new trial in 2016, when jurors rejected his claims and imposed a 99-year sentence.
In his appeal, Tiede argued that the trial court should have enforced an agreement _ reached by his lawyers and Danny Buck Davidson, the Panola County criminal district attorney _ to seek a sentence equaling the almost 17 years Tiede had already served in prison.
Davidson, however, stepped aside from the case, and new prosecutors with the attorney general's office opposed the shorter sentence.
In a ruling handed down Wednesday, the Texarkana-based 6th Court of Appeals said there was no evidence that Davidson had reached a final agreement with Tiede's lawyers before stepping aside.
The three-judge appeals court panel also rejected Tiede's claims that his confession had been improperly admitted at trial and that his indictment should have been voided because of bias by a grand juror.
The granddaughter of Marjorie Nugent, who was 81 when Tiede shot her to death in her Carthage home in East Texas, said she was relieved by the decision.
"Truth and justice were upheld, and a Hollywood myth was finally proved to be what it was _ a myth," Shanna Nugent said. "Bernie Tiede is a con man and a murderer. He conned my grandmother out of her life savings, and then he brutally murdered her. Two juries heard the evidence in two separate cities 17 years apart, and both reached the same conclusion."
Tiede's appeals attorney, Jonathan Landers of Houston, was not ready to respond to the ruling but planned to make a statement in the future, his office said Thursday.
Defense lawyers argued that Tiede was the victim of a sexual predator, an uncle who abused him for six years starting around age 12.
Psychologists said the betrayal of trust had a devastating effect on his life, leaving Tiede unable to exit abusive relationships _ like the one defense lawyers said he had with Nugent _ and explaining why he snapped on the day he shot her, hiding her body in a freezer, where it was discovered nine months later.
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