A former Seven Fields man found guilty of homicide in 2012 appeared in county court Friday to seek another appeal of his conviction.

In 2012, Eric D. Rutledge, 24, was convicted of the shooting death of his friend, Courtney Daily of Colorado, after a four-day trial.

During the trial, he admitted to shooting Daily, who was 18, on Nov. 16, 2010, with a 12-gauge shotgun in his apartment in Seven Fields. He said they were playing and that it was an accident. Daily died of her injuries the next day.

He was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison and is now an inmate at the state prison in Albion, Pa.

He filed an appeal in 2012 and in 2013 the Superior Court of Pennsylvania affirmed the conviction.

On Friday, court-appointed attorney Mike Jewert argued before Judge William Shaffer that Rutledge had an inadequate defense in the first appeal.

Rutledge wanted his appeal to continue to the state Supreme Court, but his former attorneys did not file for a further appeal on his behalf, he said.

Jewert said that Rutledge provided the names of three people to appear as character witnesses in the hearing, but he was unable to reach any of them at any of the phone numbers or addresses Rutledge provided. They were also unable to reach Rutledge’s mother, whose current address also is unknown, he said. Al Lindsay, Rutledge’s defense attorney in his trial and co-counsel for his appeal, was called as a witness.

Lindsay said that after the 2013 decision he sent a letter to Rutledge and met with him in person to recommend that he drop any further attempts at an appeal.

“We felt that it would be futile,” Lindsay said.

Rutledge Friday said that he remembered meeting with Lindsay, but never agreed that they should not move forward with another appeal. He also said he tried to call his mother around that time to discuss legal fees, but he could not reach her.

Shaffer agreed to leave the record open until Wednesday so that Lindsay’s letter from 2013 could be submitted as evidence by assistant district attorney Richard Bosco.

Jewert declined to comment after the hearing.

Shaffer did not indicate when he would decide on Rutledge’s appeal.