A 29-year-old man convicted of aggravated assault and felony murder June 2009 filed an application to reopen his appeal yesterday, citing a denial of due process.

Phillip Boler was arraigned on Feb. 25, 2009, with both charges having firearm specifications attached. Boler pleaded not guilty, but was convicted on both counts and firearm specifications after an eight-day trial, according to the court documents.

Boler was sentenced to 10 years for aggravated robbery, 15 years to life for murder, and three additional years for firearm specifications. The firearm specification sentence was merged into the other sentence time, according to the documents.

Athens County Prosecutor C. David Warren could not be reached for comment.

The charges stemmed from a robbery-turned-gunfight in New Marshfield in February 2009. Boler, Abdifatah Abdi, 18, Hamda Jama, 22 and Mohat Osman, 18, attempted to raid Billy Osborne’s trailer in search of drugs. At least two firearms were involved, but prosecutors could not prove who was in possession of them.

Boler appealed his conviction July 2009 to the Fourth District Court of Appeals. The court denied his appeal July 2010, according to the documents.

Yesterday, Boler applied to reopen his appeal, citing 12 errors in his original appeal. He claimed inadequate representation led to the denial of due process of law and the right to a fair trial.

Boler found errors in his conviction because he was sentenced to time for firearm specifications, which his application states he was never formally indicted for and was never proven to have possessed, according to court documents.

The application also states the State introduced “other bad acts, committed by the defendant and associates in order to portray the defendant as a diabolical villain,” according to documents.

His application states the State did not have sufficient evidence to convict him on the charges based upon proof beyond a reasonable doubt, according to the documents.