This shows murder defendant Letalvis Cobbins in Knox County Criminal Court in Knoxville in 2009.

KNOXVILLE - A state appeals court has upheld the conviction and sentence of one of the men who participated in the kidnapping, torture and killing of a young Knoxville couple in 2007.

Letalvis Cobbins claimed his trial was tainted by the drug use and misconduct of former Knoxville Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner. Baumgartner resigned from the bench and pleaded guilty to official misconduct in March 2011.

On Friday, a three-judge panel of the Criminal Appeals Court ruled against Cobbins. The court found that the Tennessee Supreme Court already ruled that Baumgartner's conduct outside the courtroom did not prevent Cobbins from receiving a fair trial.

The appeals court also ruled against Cobbins on other claims. Those included claims that the jury was prejudiced by the showing of graphic autopsy photographs, by testimony about a gun Cobbins owned that was unrelated to the crimes, and by the judge's decision to allow members of the victims' families to wear buttons with the victims' photos on them during the trial.

Cobbins is serving a sentence of life without parole plus 100 years for his role in the slaying of 21-year-old Channon Christian and for facilitating the killing of her 23-year-old boyfriend, Christopher Newsom. The couple was kidnapped in a carjacking, and both were sexually tortured and killed in January 2007.

Also convicted in the couple's murder were George Thomas and Cobbins' brother Lemaricus Davidson. All three men are from Lebanon, Kentucky. Thomas faces two consecutive life sentences plus 25 years, and Davidson has been sentenced to death.

Vanessa Coleman, also of Lebanon, Kentucky, was sentenced to 35 years in prison for helping the three men in the attack that killed Christian.