INDIANAPOLIS | The Indiana Court of Appeals has upheld the murder conviction of Jason Gaboian, who was sentenced to 53 years in prison last year for shooting and fatally stabbing a Gary man in Gaboian's Hobart apartment.

In an unanimous decision issued late Wednesday, a three-judge appellate panel denied Gaboian's attempts to throw out his confession and evidence collected during a warrantless search of the Hobart apartment he shared with his girlfriend Ashley Lawrence.

Hobart police came to the Cressmoor Park apartment on the evening of March 27, 2007, after receiving a call from Gaboian's father, who told police there may have been a shooting there and that he was worried his son might attempt suicide. By then, Gaboian and Lawrence, 20, had dumped the body of Deshun Bennett, 25, in Gary and taken his car to a chop shop.

Hobart police noticed blood stains on Gaboian's pants when he answered the apartment door. The officers asked Gaboian if he was all right, and he shook his head no and pointed to a blood stain just inside the apartment.

"I shot him because he was raping my girlfriend, and I dumped his body in Gary," Gaboian told the officers, motioning them to enter the apartment.

Lawrence later said the sex with Bennett, who frequented the Gary club where she worked, was consensual. She was sentenced to 30 years in prison for her role in the killing.

Gaboian asked the appeals court to throw out a similar statement he made while in custody six hours later, contending he had been under the influence of drugs and alcohol. But the court rejected the argument, ruling that "a confession is rendered inadmissible due to intoxication only when an accused is so intoxicated that he is unaware of what he is saying."