The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals upheld an Etowah County Circuit Court ruling dismissing a death-row inmate’s post-conviction petition.

Timothy Scott Boyle was convicted and sentenced to die after the 2005 death of his girlfriend’s 2-year-old daughter.

The girl was taken to a Gadsden hospital Oct. 26, 2005, and later died as a result of brain swelling from a blunt force trauma injury to her head. She also was found to have bruises and a cigarette burn.

At trial, her then-5-year old sister testified that Boyle hit the girl’s head on a car door while putting her in her car seat about a week before her death, and that the night before she went to the hospital, he threw the toddler against the side of the bathtub and held her head underwater several times.

The sister said Savannah threw up in the bed they shared that night, and the next morning, she could not wake her.

Evidence at the trial included vomit-stained sheets investigators found at the Rainbow City apartment.

Boyle’s attorneys sough post-conviction relief claiming he had ineffective counsel during his trial and in the sentencing portion of his trial in 2009.

In March, Etowah County Circuit Judge David Kimberley dismissed the motion.

Boyle’s lawyers appealed the decision to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, which upheld Kimberley’s decision.