PORTLAND, Maine (AP) The Maine supreme court has upheld the conviction and sentence of a man who beat his girlfriend with a baseball bat while she slept.

The Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday rejected James Sweeney’s contention that the conviction should be overturned because of testimony from the victim’s mother. The justices unanimously found that the hearsay evidence was a “harmless error.” The court also upheld the 38-year sentence imposed on Sweeney.

Sweeney was convicted of murder in the 2017 killing of 51-year-old Wendy Douglas.