Appeals Court upholds murder conviction, sentence in stabbing death

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld the murder conviction and life-without-parole sentence of a man in the stabbing death of a woman at a Tulsa hotel.

The court on Thursday rejected an appeal by 28-year-old Jose Jonathan Rivera-Chavez, who was convicted in the December 2016 death of Wanda Cooper.

Cooper died at a hospital after being stabbed in her room at a hotel in east Tulsa.

The court dismissed a claim that it was improper to show jurors a one-minute, 17 second video of Rivera-Chavez being given his Miranda warning in which he declined to speak with detectives without an attorney present.

Prosecutors say Rivera-Chavez’s demeanor shown in the video disproves his claim that he was under the influence of methamphetamine when he stabbed Cooper.