Idaho man convicted in Tomah hotel murder won’t get new trial

A judge in Monroe County has denied a convicted murderer’s request for a new trial. 

The ruling from Judge Todd Ziegler came Thursday in the case of 31-year-old Zachary Davis of Idaho, who’s trying to appeal his conviction for stabbing a man in a Tomah hotel room five years ago. 

The victim, Derek Magnuson, allegedly had made advances at Davis’s friend Sebastian Martinez, who identifies as female and uses the name Sabrina. 

Monroe County District Attorney Kevin Croninger says Martinez recently testified at an appeal hearing for Davis, and apparently didn’t help Davis’s cause, claiming he saw ghosts in the courtroom. 

Magnuson was stabbed with a machete during a fight in 2015, after having met Davis and Martinez in Tomah.