A man sentenced to death for the killing and dismemberment of a Lincoln woman he met on the date app Tinder will not get to serve as his own attorney in his automatic appeal.

The Nebraska Supreme Court last week rejected Aubrey Trail’s plan to fire his team of attorneys and represent himself in his appeal, the Omaha World-Herald reported. Trail, 55, had argued that his court-appointed attorneys have refused to support his request to sell some $25,000 in antiques and rare coins and give the money to a memorial fund set up for his victim, 24-year-old Sydney Loofe.

Trail and his girlfriend at the time of the killing, Bailey Boswell, already are under court order to pay $400,000 to a Kansas couple who fell victim to a rare coin scam pulled off by Trail and Boswell.

Trail was convicted in 2019 of first-degree murder and criminal conspiracy to commit murder in the 2017 murder of Loofe, whose body was cut into 14 pieces with the help of Boswell, wrapped in garbage bags and dumped in ditches along country roads in rural Clay County. Trail was sentenced to death earlier this year.

Boswell, 27, also was found guilty last year of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in Loofe’s death. She’s scheduled to learn on Nov. 8 whether she’ll be sentenced to death or life in prison.

A bill that updates several concealed carry provisions and the state’s Uniform Controlled Substances Act passed May 21.

Sen. Tom Brewer
LB236, as introduced by Sen. Tom Brewer of Gordon, would have allowed counties to authorize residents to carry a concealed weapon without a state-issued permit. Those provisions were removed from the bill and replaced by provisions of four other bills:
• LB85, introduced by Brainard Sen. Bruce Bostelman, which requires the Nebraska State Patrol to notify the holder of a concealed carry permit four months prior to the permit’s expiration;
• LB173, introduced by Blair Sen. Ben Hansen, which exempts from concealed carry prohibitions the transportation of a firearm in a vehicle for lawful purposes or carrying a concealed weapon directly to or from a vehicle if the firearm is unloaded, stored in a case and kept separate from ammunition;
• LB244, introduced by Elmwood Sen. Robert Clements, which allows a 30-day grace period to renew a concealed carry permit; and
• LB301, also introduced by Hansen, which removes CBD contained in a product approved by the FDA from the definition of hashish or concentrated cannabis and updates Nebraska drug schedules and penalties to conform to federal law.

Senators passed LB236 on a 45-0 vote.