Topeka ? The Kansas Supreme Court has reversed the murder convictions of a Salina man accused of killing one man during a burglary and another man after an argument.

The justices ruled this past week that four of Willie Jerome Smith-Parker’s 10 allegations of error had merit and that cumulatively the errors deprived him of a fair trial, The Salina Journal reported.

Smith-Parker was convicted in October 2010 in Salina of first-degree murder in the death of 24-year-old Alfred Mack Jr. and second-degree murder in the death of 22-year-old Justin Letourneau. Smith-Parker told relatives of the two men that he did not commit the June 2009 crimes when he was sentenced in November 2010 to more than 80 years in prison.

Smith-Parker was one of three people charged in Mack’s killing. Salina police investigating a burglary June 19, 2009, discovered Mack’s body in his apartment. He had been shot in the chest, and items that belonged to him were found in Smith-Parker’s residence.

Letourneau died from a gunshot wound to the head that also occurred June 19, 2009. He and Smith-Parker had met two years before in prison. On the night before the shooting, they argued about Letourneau’s treatment of his common-law wife. Smith-Parker drove Letourneau to the hospital.

One issue Smith-Parker raised was with how a juror was replaced with an alternative after deliberations commenced. The court ruled that “the failure to instruct the jury to begin its deliberations anew after (the juror) was replaced with an alternate juror, and the denial of Smith-Parker’s motion to recall at least (the juror) and the presiding juror to investigate allegation of jury misconduct” merited the reversal.

“The combination of the overall weakness of the evidence against him and multiple serious procedural defects tainting the process mean Smith-Parker was substantially prejudiced under the totality of the circumstances and denied a fair trial,” the court ruled.