RENO (AP) - The Nevada Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of Peter Bergna, a former art appraiser from Incline Village who was convicted of staging a crash that killed his wife near the Mount Rose ski resort in 1998.
Bergna was found guilty in 2002 of murdering of Rinette Riella-Bergna and he was sentenced to life in prison.
He claimed the brakes failed so he bailed out of his truck just before it plunged 700 feet down the mountain.
Bergna's appeal said his lawyers were ineffective because they failed to challenge a jailhouse informant's testimony and should have called a forensic brake expert to testify.
The high court ruled Friday that Bergna failed to prove he would have been acquitted if his lawyers had acted differently.
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