The conviction and 100-year prison term given Tory Teigen for the disappearance of a Rapid City man in 2004 were unanimously upheld Thursday by the South Dakota Supreme Court.

The high court decided Teigen, 31, got a fair trial. Evidence of his guilt was overwhelming, the justices said.

Teigen was convicted of kidnapping Troy Klug over a $300 drug debt. Klug, 26, was last seen bound and gagged in the trunk of a car.

In his appeal, Teigen argued that hearsay testimony of a co-conspirator should not have been allowed at his trial. Prosecutors used statements that Cynthia Kindall made to others about Klug's disappearance.

Klug was last seen after going to Kindall's home to buy methamphetamine.

A judge ruled in March 2005 that Kindall was incompetent to stand trial based on a mental evaluation. Kindall later pleaded guilty but mentally ill to kidnapping and was sent to prison for 20 years.

The Supreme Court said statements Kindall made to others while police were searching for Klug were properly admitted at Teigen's trial because the comments were wrapped in the conspiracy over the disappearance.

"Even if some of the statements (Teigen) challenges should not have been admitted, he has not alleged nor shown how he was prejudiced," the high court said.

"Even without these statements, there is overwhelming evidence supporting the verdict," the justices added, noting that another co-conspirator testified about seeing Klug's body in the trunk of Kindall's car.

The high court also rejected an argument that incriminating notes Teigen gave a co-conspirator while Teigen was awaiting trial should not have been admitted as evidence at his trial. Teigen said Tell Cook of Belle Fourche got the notes while working as an informant for police, but a circuit judge properly concluded that was not the case, the justices said.

Cook pleaded guilty to failing to report a felony and was put on probation.

In one of the notes Teigen wrote Cook while both men were in jail, Teigen wrote: "Don't worry about them finding a body."

In a later note: "That was one of the nastiest things I've ever done … one of the nastiest. If a guys gonna make fish food he just as well put it in bite size pieces."

Trial testimony indicated that the interior of Kindall's car was stripped to the metal frame, had been cleaned with bleach and reeked of decomposition.

The high court also rejected Teigen's claim that his constitutional right to a speedy trial was violated when he was held in jail for three days short of a year before going to trial.

The 100-year prison term is not excessive because the maximum prison sentence for kidnapping is life, the justices added.

Teigen will be eligible for parole in 2054, when he is 77.

A Belle Fourche man, James Kusick, pleaded guilty this week to perjury and accessory to murder for his role in Klug's disappearance. Kusick acknowledged seeing Klug in the trunk of a car; he said Klug had been stuffed into a tool box.

Kusick, 29, will be sentenced later. His girlfriend, Jamee Corean, 28, of Belle Fourche has pleaded not guilty to accessory to murder and is awaiting trial.