JERSEY CITY - A 46-year-old man convicted of raping three women has lost his appeal for new trials and will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Lamar Fields, of Jersey City, was convicted in 2013 of breaking into a 35-year-old woman's basement apartment and sexually assaulting her on Sept. 3, 2010. Three weeks later, Fields raped and robbed a 17-year-old girl and her 65-year-old mother inside their Bramhall Avenue home, authorities said.

Fields sought to have both cases retried, saying the court erred by not allowing his defense attorney, James Lisa, cross-examine a detective who testified Fields' fingerprints were found on the doors of both homes where the assaults occurred, court records show.

He additionally claimed the state made "inappropriate comments that denied him a fair trial" in both cases, according to filings in the appeals court.

The court denied those requests.

Fields, who was found hiding in a closet at a New York homeless shelter about a week after the second attack, was first sentenced to life plus 40 years for the double sexual assault.

A judge later sentenced him to 20 years in prison for the Sept. 3 rape with two concurrent terms of 10 and five years for other charges. That sentence was handed down to run consecutively to his first conviction.

The 45-year-old argued the 20-year sentence was "excessive" and some of his charges should have been sentenced together. Three appellate court judges agreed with Fields to merge parts of his sentence, adding that the change will not affect his life sentence, the court ruled.

Caitlin Mota may be reached at cmota@jjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @caitlin_mota. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.