Disputes persist in Steven Avery case as prosecutors, defense clash over filings, motions

MANITOWOC (WLUK) – Steven Avery’s attorney and prosecutors are trading barbs about recent filings in the case, and which motions should be heard next.

Avery is serving a life sentence for the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach, a freelance photographer. Avery's nephew Brendan Dassey was also convicted. Their cases received worldwide attention with the 2015 release of the Netflix series "Making A Murderer."

Avery has had a motion pending for months before the state Court of Appeals. In that case, Avery's attorney is appealing a ruling denying him a new trial or hearing on claims there is an alternate suspect actually responsible for Halbach's death. Prosecutors have an April 15 deadline to reply to the latest filing in that case.

As FOX 11 reported, on March 15, Avery’s attorney, Kathleen Zellner, filed a motion in Manitowoc circuit court, asking for scientific testing relating to evidence on Halbach’s vehicle.

On March 22, special prosecutor Norman Gahn filed a letter to the judge, objecting to the March 15 motion.

“Once an appeal is pending and the record has been transmitted to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, the circuit court’s jurisdiction over the case ends,” Gahn wrote. “Avery’s motion is improperly filed and cannot be adjudicated at this time.”

Not so fast, Zellner replied on Monday.

“Unfortunately, Mr. Gahn failed to note that four days prior to his letter to Your Honor, on March 18, 2024, Mr. Avery’s counsel filed with the Appellate Court a Motion to Stay Pending Disposition of Mr. Avery’s the Amended Second Motion for Scientific testing,” Zellner wrote. “If the motion to stay and remand is granted, this Court has jurisdiction to proceed with a decision on Mr. Avery’s Amended Second Motion for Scientific Testing.”

The issue of the testing request is now before Judge Anthony Lambrecht. The case was assigned to him in October, after being in the hands of a Sheboygan County judge for several years.

Dassey has no appeals pending. His latest appeal was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018.