A motion for a new trial for the last defendant in the Paul McKeen Jr. murder has been denied.

Charles Aldon Bulloch, convicted along with two others in the 1990 slaying of the Pine Mountain man, had his motion for a new trial denied.

Paul McKeen Jr. was 21 and living off U.S. 27 in Pine Mountain when he was found by a passerby off Ga. 190. Investigators determined that although McKeen was found in Meriwether County, he was beaten in Harris County.

The case remained cold until 2004, however, when then-Coweta Judicial Circuit investigator Clay Bryant helped bring Bulloch and others to justice. Johnny Vernon Phillips and James Randall Reagan were charged with felony murder and kidnapping with bodily injury. Guy Walter Hardaway also was charged but later was acquitted.

Bryant said McKeen owed the men a $200 cocaine debt when he was taken from outside a Pine Mountain pub in February 1990. He was beaten with a tire iron.

“A passerby found him gravely injured,” Bryant said. McKeen died two days later at Columbus Medical Center.

Phillips and Reagan had previously had their motions for new trials denied by the Georgia Supreme Court. All are serving life in prison.