OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld the murder conviction and life without parole sentence of a private prison inmate in the death of his cellmate.

The court on Thursday rejected appeals by 43-year-old Alex Moore, who was convicted in 2016 in Beckham County of killing 33-year-old Todd Bush in 2014.

The court on Thursday denied Moore's claims that there was improper evidence, improper statements by the prosecutor, that there was no discussion of Moore's right to testify and that his attorney was ineffective.

Moore and Bush were cellmates at the privately run North Fork Correctional Center in Sayre when Bush died of what an autopsy found was asphyxiation due to strangulation.

Both inmates were serving sentences for separate convictions in California.