Neb. Supreme Court rejects child killer’s appeal

The Nebraska Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of a sex offender sentenced to death for killing a 12-year-old girl whose body was found buried in an Omaha park. Roy Ellis Jr. was convicted of first-degree murder for killing Amber Harris in 2006.

Amber's remains were found May 2006 buried in Hummel Park. Attorneys for Ellis had argued that a lower court should not have allowed two women to testify at his 2008 murder trial that he repeatedly raped them when they were ages 14 and 12.

The state's high court agreed in its opinion issued Friday that the lower court abused its discretion in admitting the women's testimony. But it said the state's physical evidence, including Ellis' DNA, was so strong as to make the error harmless.