A man convicted last August in the murder of his former girlfriend has been denied a new trial. Shawn Smoot filed a handwritten motion for a new trial back in September after he was convicted of the murder of Brooke Morris. Smoot was convicted and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. After five years of investigation, Smoot’s lawyer still claimed to the jury that there was no evidence that proved he was in Roane County the night the woman was murdered. Her body was discovered along a highway in the rural part of the county in Oct. 2011. Smoot also claimed there was “prejudicial error” when the court denied his motion of suppressing all hearsay evidence. He claims the statements do not fall under any of the Tennessee rules of evidence hearsay exceptions.