For the second time in five years, Missouri's Supreme Court has upheld the death sentences Brian Joseph Dorsey received for the 2006 murders of his cousin and her husband.
His first appeal had argued his sentences should have been life in prison, without parole.
The court's Wednesday ruling on Dorsey's second appeal rejected several complaints for ineffective counsel during the original case.
Dorsey, now 42, a former Jefferson City resident, pleaded guilty in March 2008 to the December 2006 murders of Sarah Bonnie, 25, and her husband, Benjamin Bonnie, 28, while they were sleeping in their home west of New Bloomfield.
The couple's bodies were found Dec. 24, 2006, by Sarah's parents, after the couple failed to attend a family holiday gathering. The couple's 4-year-old daughter was in the home but wasn't harmed; she was watching TV when her grandparents came to the home and told them that Sarah and Ben had not come out of the bedroom all day.
Authorities reported Sarah was killed first, then Ben, and that both victims had been killed with a single shotgun blast to the head. They said Sarah had been raped after the shootings, and that bleach had been poured on her body in an attempt to cover up or destroy evidence.
A number of items were taken from the house, including Sarah's car shortly after Dorsey had turned himself in to the Callaway County Sheriff's office, saying he was "the right guy" concerning the Bonnies' deaths.
After Dorsey pleaded guilty in March 2008, Circuit Judge Gene Hamilton conducted a sentencing trial and the jury recommended a death sentence for each murder.
In July 2010, the seven-judge Supreme Court upheld the death sentences in a 21-page ruling, saying Hamilton had not made any mistakes that would cause the death sentences to be replaced with a life-without-parole sentence.
The court's unanimous opinion Wednesday took 40 pages to explain why it rejected each of Dorsey's eight legal complaints.
The complaints included: the state failed to inform his lawyers of certain DNA evidence and that other people had similar DNA profiles, his trial attorneys didn't do a proper pre-trial investigation that would have shown them Dorsey didn't rape Sarah and that he was suffering from mental illness when the Bonnies were killed.
He also argued his attorneys didn't present enough witnesses on his behalf and didn't object enough to the state's evidence.
Dorsey is being held on death row at the Potosi Correctional Center, Mineral Point. No dates have been set for his execution.