Prosecutors and defense attorneys in the second Moe Gibbs murder trial disagree about the significance of DNA found on Mindy Morgenstern's fingernails and shirt after her death.

Gibbs, 35, a former Barnes County jailer, is accused of killing Morgenstern, a Valley City State University student from New Salem, in her off-campus Valley City apartment in September 2006. A deadlocked jury in Minot could not reach a verdict in the case at a trial that lasted from June 19 to July 12.

Gibbs and Morgenstern lived in the same Valley City apartment building at the time of Morgenstern's death.

Opening statements in the case were held Monday afternoon, after Southeast District Judge John Paulson gave the jury their preliminary instructions. The jury of nine men and five women was seated Monday morning. Two of the 14 jurors are alternates who will not participate in jury deliberations.

Barnes County State's Attorney Brad Cruff previewed the prosecution's case in a 54-minute opening statement in which he explained how each of the state's more than 30 expected witnesses will play into the case. He focused largely on DNA evidence found on Morgenstern's fingernails and shirt.

Cruff said a full DNA profile was formed from DNA on Morgenstern's fingernails, and that DNA matched that of a sample given freely by Gibbs. He said full DNA profiles rarely are found.

Cruff is prosecuting the case along with Barnes County Assistant State's Attorney Lee Grossman and Assistant Attorney General Jon Byers.

Defense attorneys Jeff Bredahl and Dennis Fisher told jurors during jury selection that they do not deny that Gibbs' DNA was found on Morgenstern's fingernails and shirt. However, Bredahl said during his opening statement that the amount of DNA corresponds to "touch DNA," which he said is DNA spread through innocent contact with similar objects.

Bredahl said the amount of DNA found is so small that it could have been picked up by touching a common door in the apartment building.

However, Cruff said more of Gibbs' DNA than Morgenstern's DNA was found on the clippings of Morgenstern's fingernails.

"There's so much there that this was not touch DNA picked up by two people touching a common surface," he said.

During his statement, Cruff also showed a timeline of where Gibbs was on Sept. 13. Cruff said Gibbs "falls off the map" from around 12:30 p.m. or 12:45 p.m. to around 3 p.m. that day. Morgenstern was last seen alive at around 12:20 or 12:25 p.m. by a friend at the Valley City State University library, and the first missed call on her cell phone came in at 12:47 p.m., Cruff said.

Bredahl objected 11 times during Cruff's opening statement. His objections largely were to information he felt was argumentative in nature in Cruff's statement, information he felt was incorrect in the statement and information he felt was more suited to a closing argument than to an opening statement.

During Bredahl's 61-minute opening statement, he pointed out pieces of evidence that were not tested by investigators and talked about other pieces of evidence that were tested but did not match Gibbs' DNA.

Bredahl said an expert in photograph enhancement and magnification will display enhanced photographs taken from videotapes two days after Morgenstern's death that show Gibbs had no scratches on his hands at that time. Cruff said in his opening statement that doctors will testify that the scratches on Gibbs' hand could have happened around the time of Morgenstern's death.

Bredahl also told jurors that prosecutors will not be able to offer a motive as to why Gibbs would murder Morgenstern. Byers objected, telling Paulson that the court had ruled against prosecutors using one potential motive. Paulson overruled the objection.

Bredahl said Cruff's statement was only one side of the story.

"The question is whether the witnesses are actually going to support what he just said to you," Bredahl said.

Monday started off with the last round of jury selections, which ended with the jury being sworn in shortly before 11 a.m. The jury consists largely of middle-aged people who said during jury selections that they were interested in being jurors.

During the morning's final jury selections, one prospective juror brought Paulson several recipes that he had asked her about during her first round of questioning.

After a lunch break, jurors were brought back into the courtroom at 1:38 p.m. However, they were taken out of the courtroom minutes later when Paulson remembered he needed to hand out copies of jury instructions to the panel.

More than 40 minutes later, jurors were brought back into the courtroom. Paulson took about 16 minutes to read through the instructions with them, which was followed by opening statements by Cruff and Bredahl.

Prosecutors are slated to begin calling witnesses at 8:30 this morning.

(Reach reporter Jenny Michael at 250-8225 or jenny.michael@bismarcktribune.com.)