Fort Riley ? A Fort Riley soldier convicted of killing two fellow soldiers won’t get a new trial because a military judge on Friday rejected his claim that evidence in his case might have been contaminated.

The judge, Lt. Col. Timothy Grammel, ruled after a daylong hearing for Aaron Stanley, formerly of suburban Phoenix. Stanley is serving life in prison without a chance of parole and had hoped to reopen his case or get his sentenced reduced.

Stanley’s attorney presented a letter from another soldier involved in the shootings that suggested the crime scene wasn’t properly secured before police arrived or while they were there. Normally, crime scenes are off limits to outsiders to preserve evidence.

After reviewing conflicting evidence about whether the crime scene might have been contaminated, Grammel said from the bench, “That clearly did not happen.”

Stanley was convicted of two counts of premeditated murder for the Sept. 13, 2004, shooting deaths of Staff Sgt. Matthew Werner, 30, of Oxnard, Calif., and Spc. Christopher D. Hymer, 23, of Nevada, Mo., at Stanley’s farmhouse near Clay Center, about 30 miles west of Fort Riley.

The soldiers and their friends used the home for illegal drug activity, including the use and manufacture of methamphetamines.

Grammel also said that if the information contained in the letter had been produced at Stanley’s court martial last year, it would not have resulted in a lesser sentence.

Grammel’s decision is not the last word, however. The case will go to a military appeals court and also will be reviewed by Maj. Gen. Dennis Hardy, Fort Riley’s commander, who could reduce Stanley’s sentence.

The letter Stanley presented came from Pvt. Eric Colvin, formerly a sergeant from Papillion, Neb., who passed it to Stanley through a third Fort Leavenworth inmate.

Colvin is serving nine years on drug charges. He was a key witness last year against Stanley, agreeing to testify in exchange for prosecutors dropping murder and conspiracy charges against him.

Colvin wrote in the letter that William James, of Troy, Mo., and Colvin’s former girlfriend, Candice Peterson, were inside the Clay Center house before police arrived to deal with the shootings.

“This could be the beginning of what Sergeant Colvin knows,” said Capt. Dan Tracy, an attorney for Stanley. “It’s not too late to avoid this manifest injustice.”

But James, a former sergeant in the same unit as Stanley and Colvin, testified he was in the house three weeks after it was released by police but not before then. He said he retrieved personal items and gave them to Colvin’s parents.

Peterson testified that she was outside the farmhouse the night of the shootings, before police arrived. But no one was there, she said, and she didn’t go inside to leave a note, as she usually would have.

“I had a feeling something had gone wrong,” Peterson said, without elaborating.

Colvin refused to testify, invoking his constitutional right to remain silent, sitting with his arms folded in the witness box.

Grammel refused to grant Colvin immunity from being prosecuted, should his testimony Friday conflict with statements Colvin made under oath last year.

Prosecutors said Stanley shot Werner and Hymer to conceal an illegal drug-trafficking operation, believing they were informants for military investigators. Stanley and Colvin had admitted making meth and growing marijuana at the farmhouse. Stanley also was convicted of numerous drug charges.