A judge on Friday turned down convicted murderer Michael Merrifield's request for a new trial, Merrifield's lawyer said.

At a hearing in Winfield, Putnam Circuit Judge Ed Eagloski denied a motion to overturn the jurors' verdict that Merrifield murdered toddler Logan Shane Goodall in 2005, defense lawyer Ed Rebrook said.

In January, jurors convicted Merrifield of three felonies: first-degree murder, child neglect resulting in death, and sexual abuse by a parent or guardian. They acquitted him of first-degree sexual assault.

Logan Goodall died in September 2005. In the months leading up to the death, Merrifield, 32, dated and lived with the boy's mother, Pepper Eren.

During the trial, Rebrook and defense lawyer Mike Clifford had argued that prosecutors couldn't prove their case because three people were in Logan Goodall's home in Hurricane in the hours before he died: Merrifield, his brother Patrick, and Eren.

The motion denied Friday included a list of reasons the court should overturn Merrifield's conviction or grant him a new trial.

One is that a medical expert called by prosecutors said the child's fatal injuries were inflicted between 20 and 90 minutes before he died, meaning Eren could have still been with the boy when they occurred.

It also claimed that Patrick Merrifield tried to kill himself during the trial. Merrifield's lawyers wrote in the motion that the court should have told jurors about the suicide attempt because it could be construed as a "tacit confession" to his part in the 2-year-old's death.

A judge on Friday turned down convicted murderer Michael Merrifield's request for a new trial, Merrifield's lawyer said.

At a hearing in Winfield, Putnam Circuit Judge Ed Eagloski denied a motion to overturn the jurors' verdict that Merrifield murdered toddler Logan Shane Goodall in 2005, defense lawyer Ed Rebrook said.

In January, jurors convicted Merrifield of three felonies: first-degree murder, child neglect resulting in death, and sexual abuse by a parent or guardian. They acquitted him of first-degree sexual assault.

Logan Goodall died in September 2005. In the months leading up to the death, Merrifield, 32, dated and lived with the boy's mother, Pepper Eren.

During the trial, Rebrook and defense lawyer Mike Clifford had argued that prosecutors couldn't prove their case because three people were in Logan Goodall's home in Hurricane in the hours before he died: Merrifield, his brother Patrick, and Eren.

The motion denied Friday included a list of reasons the court should overturn Merrifield's conviction or grant him a new trial.

One is that a medical expert called by prosecutors said the child's fatal injuries were inflicted between 20 and 90 minutes before he died, meaning Eren could have still been with the boy when they occurred.

It also claimed that Patrick Merrifield tried to kill himself during the trial. Merrifield's lawyers wrote in the motion that the court should have told jurors about the suicide attempt because it could be construed as a "tacit confession" to his part in the 2-year-old's death.

Patrick Merrifield was supposed to testify in his brother's defense during the trial, but he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

The lawyers argued that the court should have made him take the stand.

"Patrick Merrifield's evidence would have been exculpatory for the defendant in that he would have testified that the morning of the death, he was unable to wake the defendant, and that thereafter Pepper Eren asked him to lie to police about the time that he left the house," the motion states.

Merrifield's lawyers also argued in the motion that the judge should have moved the trial to a different county because of media attention to the case.

Now Merrifield will appeal to the state Supreme Court, Rebrook said. Once defense lawyers receive a complete copy of the trial transcript, they will have four months to file that appeal.

Merrifield is scheduled to be sentenced May 1 in Putnam Circuit Court, Rebrook said.

To contact staff writer Alison Knezevich, use e-mail or call 348-1240.