A chronic drunken driver convicted of second-degree murder for killing a woman in a traffic accident in Durham County was denied another trial by the N.C. Supreme Court today.

Kenneth Wayne Maready, 45, is serving a minimum 50-year sentence for killing Kay Stokes, 61, in the wreck three years ago, Dan Kane reports.

The N.C. Court of Appeals ruled in January that Maready should get a new trial because a judge allowed evidence from an improper traffic stop minutes before the crash. The appellate court found that Durham County sheriff's deputies did not have probable cause to stop the silver Honda that Maready was driving.

The N.C. Supreme Court found the traffic stop was legal. Deputies pulled over Maready after another motorist told them he was driving erratically, running stop signs and traffic lights. The deputies said he smelled of alcohol and admitted to drinking alcoholic beverages. They planned to arrest him, but he then sped off, telling them he was "not going back to the penitentiary."

He then crashed into Stokes' pickup.

Maready had been convicted six times of drunken driving prior to the accident.

The justices also rejected the lower court's ruling that the trial judge had improperly included Maready's full driving record to be admitted as evidence. The high court sent the case back to the appellate court to address other claims of judicial error made by Maready.