HARTFORD, Conn. — A Connecticut man found guilty of killing four people failed to convince the state Appellate Court that his convictions should be thrown out because he was referred to by his nickname – “Killer”– at trial.

The use of the nickname was “inappropriate,” but Marco Camacho failed to prove it prejudiced the jury enough to warrant a new trial, the state’s second-highest court said Monday.

Camacho was convicted in the 1996 murders in Southington of Nick Votino, 50; Joanne Votino, 18; and their house guests, Lynn Suszynski, 26; and Wayne Barrows, 44. Prosecutors said he and an accomplice, Erik Lee Henry, went to the house to collect a $400 drug debt from Nick Votino. When they were not paid, Camacho became enraged and shot everyone inside, they said.

Camacho, who was 17 at the time of the murders, was convicted of felony murder in 2002 and sentenced 260 years in prison.

In Camacho’s latest appeal, his lawyer, Joseph Visone, argued the jury was prejudiced not only by the use of the nickname but by the cumulative effect it had on jurors when combined with the playing of a 911 tape.