Court denies new trial for cop killer 'Bucky' Phillips

ROCHESTER - Ralph "Bucky" Phillips, a notorious fugitive who killed a New York state trooper and wounded two others in 2006, failed to persuade an appeals court to withdraw his guilty pleas and allow him to stand trial.

Phillips, 46, is serving a life sentence without possibility of parole after telling a judge in November 2006 that he was "guilty as hell" of a litany of murder and other charges. But he argued in an appeal last month that he entered the pleas only because he got bad advice from a court-appointed lawyer.

In a unanimous decision Friday afternoon, the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court determined that Phillips voluntarily admitted his intention to kill or wound state troopers staking out his former girlfriend's house in rural Chautauqua County in western New York.