ABERDEEN, Miss. (WTVA) -- The Mississippi Supreme Court has upheld the conviction and sentence handed down in a depraved heart murder case in Monroe County.
Glenn Wayne Hawkins, 54, is serving a life sentence in the August 2007 death of Rita Fair.
Authorities say Fair was Hawkins' girlfriend and he said the two were fighting because she told him she was seeing someone else.
Deputies says Hawkins told them he killed her when they arrived at the home the two shared.
Hawkins was tried and convicted by a Monroe County jury and sentenced to life in prison.
He appealed claiming the evidence didn't support a murder conviction, whether the jury was properly instructed on the difference between depraved heart murder and culpable negligence manslaughter, and whether the jury was confuses as to the difference between murder and manslaughter.
The Mississippi Supreme court issued the decision Thursday on a seven to two vote.
The two justices who voted to overturn say they feel the circumstances could have justified a charge of aggravated assault of manslaughter, but not murder.
