CINCINNATI — Jeffrey Wogenstahl, the man convicted of murdering 10-year-old Amber Garrett in 1991he is now waiting to see if a judge will grant his request for a retrial.

In 1991, police found Garrett’s body in an overgrown roadside area near the Ohio-Indiana border. Garrett had multiple stab wounds and blunt force trauma to the head. Wogenstahl was convicted by a Hamilton County jury in 1993 of Garrett’s murder and has been on death row ever since.

Wogenstahl’s attorneys argue that evidence beneficial to Wogenstahl’s defense was suppressed in the original trial. They say his right to a fair trial was violated.

Friday afternoon marked the fifth and final day of an evidentiary hearing in the case.

DNA analysis expert Marc Taylor was the last person called to testify. During his testimony, Taylor was asked by the defense about the blood tests done by police during the original trial. He said the report for the samples tested and used as evidence did not mention how the processing was carried out.

Because of this, Taylor called the evidence “questionable” and said he could not rule out the possibility of contamination.

Prosecutor Phil Cummings rebutted Taylor’s testimony, arguing that Taylor was speculating.

After the closing witness, Wogenstahl’s attorneys and the prosecution gave brief closing arguments to the judge.

Wogenstahl’s lawyers insisted that evidence beneficial to the defense was never shared with his original lawyers. They say this includes forensics, police reports and interviews.

“He’s been waiting a long time to present all this evidence to the court,” Sarah Gelsomino, Wogenstahl’s lawyer, said after the hearing.

Cummings rejected the defense’s closing arguments, saying the laws regarding the discovery process were different during the original trial. He added that the new evidence presented by the defense would not have changed the original conviction.

Cummings said the evidence proves the original conviction should be upheld.

“But the thing you always have to come back to in this case, which is everything that judges, juries, magistrates and courts have done for the last 30 years, is just the overwhelming nature of the evidence in this case,” Cummings said. .

In four weeks, the prosecution and defense will simultaneously present their final written arguments to the judge. After that, the judge will make a decision within 60 days.