The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the highest court in the state, has rejected the latest appeal from Lauren Astley's killer, Nate Fujita. Astley was found dead in a marsh in 2011.

A judge rejected Fujita's request for a new trial, saying the evidence overwhelmingly supports his conviction.

Fujita is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole after he was convicted of first-degree murder.

Fujita was 20 in 2013 when he was found guilty of strangling and stabbing his former high school girlfriend to death in Wayland.

Prosecutors during the trial said Fujita was angry because Astley had broken up with him and carefully planned her murder.

They said that Fujita stashed his bloody clothes and dumped Astley's body in a nearby marsh after he killed her. 

Defense attorney William Sullivan said during the trial that Fujita was not in his right mind when he committed the murder.

The attorney claimed that Fujita has a family history of mental illness, signs of depression, and he suggested Fujita could have suffered from CTE from his time playing high school football.

Astley's father, Malcolm Astley, marked the fifth anniversary of her death in 2016 pinning up ribbons outside a Wayland church, "to continue to build awareness about the issues of boys' and men's violence against girls and women."

Malcolm Astley also worked with Wayland High School students following his daughter's death to raise awareness about teen dating violence.

The National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-7233.