DES MOINES, Iowa (KCAU) — The Iowa Court of Appeals denied a request for a new trial by the man who was sentenced for murdering Mollie Tibbetts.

Cristhian Bahena Rivera, 29, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole back in 2021.

According to the Des Moines Register, his attorneys argued that the statement Rivera made to law enforcement in August of 2018 should have been suppressed because his Miranda rights were not read to him.

The ruling says there were multiple references to Rivera that he was free to go and end the conversation with law enforcement, but he declined to do so.