An East Tennessee man convicted of sexually abusing his underaged daughter has lost his bid for a new trial, unable to convince a judge that his original lawyer made multiple mistakes and that new evidence raised doubts about his guilt.

David Richards, 45, a former Lenoir City pastor and foster dad, is serving a 12-year sentence in the Tennessee prison system for sexual battery, rape, and statutory rape by an authority figure.

A Knox County Criminal Court jury convicted him in 2019. Judge Steve Sword imposed a sentence.

Richards was represented at trial by veteran attorney Gregg Harrison, a former Knox County prosecutor now in private practice.

Richards hired veteran defense attorney Stephen Ross Johnson, whose work in the field has included founding a local chapter of a group that seeks to overturn wrongful convictions through strategies such as genetic evidence.

Richards, through Johnson, wanted to throw out his convictions and get a new trial.