The two have also been convicted of stealing Bt6.6 million in cash and assets from Ekkayuth in the June 2013 crime.

The Appeals Court verdict, read at Bangkok’s Ratchadapisek Criminal Court, also upheld sentences for four others defendants in the case.

Santiparp’s parents – Master Sergeant 1st Class Itthipol Pengduang, 53, and Jitampohai, 50 – were also each jailed for 16 months for hiding more than Bt4.2 million in stolen cash.

Chavalit Wunchum, 25, was jailed for 13 months for aiding in the concealment of Ekkayuth’s body and for six months in an unrelated gun probation case.

Tiwakorn Kuathong, 20, was handed an eight-month prison sentence for helping to conceal the body.

Between June 6 and 9, 2013, Santiparp, 25, and Suthipong, 30, robbed the 59-year-old Ekkayuth at gunpoint, detained him, strangled him to death and buried his body in Phatthalung province.

Chavalit and Tiwakorn helped them to bury the body.

The lower court sentenced Santiparp and Suthipong in December 2014 to death for premeditated murder but commuted the sentence to life imprisonment because they confessed.

The two men were also ordered to pay Bt1.9 million in compensation to Ekkayuth’s heirs.

None of the defendants appealed, but the case was automatically forwarded to the Appeals Court because it carried life sentences.