LAKE COUNTY, Fla. -- Two years after Jason Wheeler was sentenced to death for killing a Lake County sheriff's deputy, his lawyer is appealing that decision.

Wheeler shot and killed Lake County deputy sheriff Wayne Koester and wounded deputies Tom McKane and William Crotty in an ambush in 2005.

Koester and other deputies were responding to a domestic violence call from Wheeler's girlfriend as he allegedly waited in the woods with a sawed-off shotgun.

Wheeler escaped after the attack, sparking a daylong manhunt in the Ocala National Forest. He was later found in the woods. The 33-year-old was shot during his capture and was paralyzed from the chest down.

Tuesday, Wheeler's attorney will try to convince the Florida Supreme Court that Judge Michael Johnson should have given the jury special instructions outlining the "heat of passion" defense and should have limited what he called "prejudicial" closing remarks by prosecutors.

Wheeler won't attend the hearing in Tallahassee. However, Koester's widow, Ashley Koester, said she plans to be there.