Published: November 09, 2009 01:07 pm      

Top court upholds debutante sentence

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s top court has upheld the conviction of a man charged with shooting a 19-year-old Savannah debutante to death during a Christmas Eve mugging.

Webster Wilson is serving a life sentence for the 2005 slaying of Jennifer Ross, a Mercer University student.

Ross was shot in the back hours after she had been presented as a debutante at Savannah’s Christmas Cotillion. She died a week later, on New Year’s Day, at the hospital where her father is an executive.

The slaying sparked a public outcry among Savannah political and business leaders.

Wilson argued that his trial counsel was ineffective. He had been seeking a new trial.