FRANKFORT — A former police officer convicted of shaking to death his former girlfriend's baby lost an appeal of his manslaughter conviction Friday.

        Bart Allen Adkins was sentenced to eight years in prison for killing 16-month-old Breanna Noe in Bullitt County in 1997. Mr. Adkins was an officer for the city of Pioneer Village at the time.

        On appeal, Mr. Adkins claimed among other things that his incriminating statements to Kentucky State Police investigators should have been suppressed. The Kentucky Court of Appeals disagreed and upheld the Bullitt Circuit Court verdict.

        Mr. Adkins first told state police that he found the baby unconscious and shook her in an attempt to revive her. When the officers expressed disbelief, Adkins admitted to shaking the baby in anger because she was crying.

        A psychiatrist who examined Mr. Adkins said he was not rational when he waived his rights and talked. But a three-judge appellate panel said there was no evidence — nor did Mr. Adkins claim — that the investigators coerced him in any way.

        “On the other hand, there is sufficient evidence that Adkins was aware of his right to remain silent and that he understood ... his right to request a lawyer when he gave his statement to police,” Judge Sara Walter Combs said, writing for the court.

        Other appellate panels:

        • Overturned a $2 million punitive-damage judgment against Louisville Water Co. arising from a traffic crash in which two teen-agers were killed. The court said Kentucky law provides for compensatory damages, but not punitive, against municipal corporations.

        • Reversed an order for Lawrence County's liability insurer to pay a judgment to 16 county road department workers who were fired en masse by the fiscal court.

        The ex-employees won a federal court ruling that the firings violated their constitutional rights. The insurer — Kentucky Association of Counties All Lines Fund — then asked the court to declare that it did not have to pay for an illegal act. A federal judge said the issue had to be decided in Franklin Circuit Court in Frankfort.

        However, the ex-employees and the fiscal court went not to Frankfort but to the local Lawrence Circuit Court, which ordered the All Lines Fund to pay. The appeals court said that was an abuse of discretion by the trial judge, James A. Knight.

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