Former Oklahoma reserve deputy appealing conviction

TULSA, Okla. (AP) – A former Oklahoma volunteer sheriff’s deputy who was sentenced to four years in prison in the fatal shooting of an unarmed man is appealing his conviction.

Attorneys for Robert Bates filed notice this week with the state’s Court of Criminal Appeals, although reasons for the appeal weren’t specified.

Bates was sentenced last week to four years in prison after the wealthy insurance executive was convicted of second-degree manslaughter.

Bates fatally shot Eric Harris on April 2, 2015, while working with Tulsa County sheriff’s deputies during an illegal gun sales sting.

Weeks after Harris was killed, an internal sheriff’s office memo from 2009 was released that alleged superiors knew Bates didn’t have enough training but pressured others to look the other way.