CHEYENNE — A Draper, UT man lost his first-degree murder appeal in the Wyoming Supreme Court today and will now spend the rest of his life in prison.

In 2018, Bradley Ross Fairborn was convicted of murdering 29-year-old Naisha Rae Story and the attempted murder of Linda Mara Natlia Arce on June 23, 2016, at the Quality Inn in Rock Springs.

However, Fairborn filed an appeal to have the convictions overturned last year claiming that his original attorney failed his defense in a number of key areas. Among them were the attorney’s failure to interview key witnesses and failing to order independent DNA tests for 320 blood swabs taken during the investigation. 

Fairborn was just 18 years old at the time of the murder. He is now 22 and was handed a life sentence without the possibility of parole during his sentencing in 2018.