Topeka ? The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday upheld the first-degree murder conviction of a McLouth man who killed his friend and buried him in his back yard.

Ronald L. Decker is serving 25 years to life for killing Lloyd Wayne Green after a night of drinking by friends celebrating a wedding anniversary in October 1999.

Green was shot at Ronald and Sue Decker’s trailer in McLouth, and the couple buried him under the steps to an outside deck. Two years later, Sue Decker disclosed the crime to a worker at a shelter for battered women.

In his appeal, Ronald Decker contended that his behavior did not support a charge of first-degree murder because the crime was not premeditated.

But the Supreme Court pointed out that Decker had told his wife he would “put down” Green, walked 17 feet to confront him and fired at least four shots.

Before the shooting, the three had visited bars in Lawrence as they celebrated the Deckers’ wedding anniversary.

But the men began fighting as they drove back to McLouth, and the shooting took place after Sue Decker told her husband that Green had touched her inappropriately.