WOODBRIDGE TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) - A woman who was convicted of killing her husband and chopping his body up to place into suitcases she threw off a bridge has had her appeal denied.

Forty-four-year-old Melanie McGuire was sentenced to life in prison in 2004 for the murder of her husband William McGuire.

She tried to have her conviction overturned by arguing that her attorney was ineffective at trial, but a Superior Court judge denied the motion.

On Monday, the Superior Court's ruling was affirmed by a state appeals court.

McGuire was a fertility clinic nurse living in Woodbridge when she killed her husband, put his remains in three suitcases and tossed them into the Chesapeake Bay.

She previously appealed her conviction to the state Supreme Court, but they declined to hear it.

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