Prosecutors in the Moe Gibbs murder trial have rested their case after calling 31 witnesses.

Barnes County State's Attorney Brad Cruff said around 10 a.m. Thursday that he and his fellow prosecutors, Barnes County Assistant State's Attorney Lee Grossman and Assistant Attorney General Jon Byers, would rest their case.

The public and the jury were instructed to leave the courtroom after that time so attorneys could deal with exhibits, motions and scheduling. Defense attorney Jeff Bredahl mentioned making a Rule 29 motion, which is a motion for acquittal because of insufficient evidence after prosecutors finish a case. If such a motion was made, it was made out of the hearing of the public.

About 45 minutes later, defense attorneys Bredahl and Dennis Fisher called their second witness, Leo Worner, to the stand. They called their first witness, Betty Schumacher, during a break in prosecution witnesses on Wednesday.

Prosecutors wrapped up their case by calling Bureau of Criminal Investigation Special Agent Arnie Rummel back to the stand. Rummel began testifying Tuesday afternoon, but was unable to return Wednesday for personal reasons.

Rummel displayed a timeline of Moe Gibbs' cell phone and Internet use, which showed a gap of more than one hour where he was unaccounted for on Sept. 13, 2006, the day Mindy Morgenstern was killed.

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

Rummel said information from Gibbs' cell phone call and text message records, MySpace, Yahoo and MSN records, show he was unaccounted for for one hour and five minutes on Sept. 13.

"I believe that allowed time for Moe Gibbs to kill Mindy Morgenstern during that time," Rummel told jurors.

The timeline included two cell phones used by Gibbs, the cell phone of Gibbs' ex-wife, Christina Judd, and Morgenstern's cell phone and computer records. Morgenstern's last communication was around 12:30, and her first missed call was at 12:46, Rummel said.

During Rummel's testimony, Bredahl moved for Southeast District Judge John Paulson to declare a mistrial for the second day in a row. His argument Thursday was over Cruff's use of the word "testimony" when referring to statements Gibbs made to investigators during an interview. He said the word could make jurors believe Gibbs had testified in the case before.

Bredahl also asked Paulson to allow the defense to show a video of the interview with Gibbs, which prosecutors have refused to show in this trial. In Minot, the video was shown. Bredahl said witnesses were giving their interpretations of Gibbs' statements rather than what he really said.

Paulson again refused to declare a mistrial and agreed to admonish the jury to not consider the words of attorneys as evidence. Paulson has refused to make prosecutors show the interview video several times during the trial.

The first defense witness of the day, Worner, was introduced as a computer expert who recently analyzed the hard drive of a computer owned by Gibbs. Worner has been helping the defense with technology issues since the first trial in Minot, at a price of $750 a day.

Prosecutors objected to the use of Worner as a witness since he has been in the courtroom since opening statements on Oct. 29. Other witnesses in the case have been sequestered and unable to sit in the courtroom during testimony until they take the stand.

Bredahl argued that the defense was only recently made aware of DVDs made by investigators off the hard drive of Gibbs' computer. He said they did not have the time or funds to have the computer analyzed by anyone but Worner.

Byers said the defense has had the computer for enough time to have analyzed it and found a witness to testify. He also said the defense knew of the timeline presented by Rummel since the last trial, and could have had the computer analyzed earlier to try to refute the timeline.

Paulson said since the defense did not know prosecutors had made DVDs, even though they had the computer, he would allow them to call Worner. The judge said he would allow prosecutors to call a rebuttal witness at a later time if they disagree with Worner's analysis.

Worner testified he examined Gibbs' computer and found that MSN Messenger had been started on the computer at 1:07 p.m. and activity on the computer continued through the afternoon.

However, on cross examination, Worner said it was possible that all of the activity between 1:07 p.m. and 1:53 p.m. could have been going on without a person sitting at the computer. That activity included automatic updates by computer programs, and people trying to chat with Gibbs who were ignored. MSN Messenger can be set to automatically ignore other users, and it can be set to automatically sign a person in without entering a password when a computer is turned on.

The defense also called Thomas Edwards, a video imaging expert, who testified he had magnified and enhanced videos from Sept. 15, 2006, from the Barnes County Correctional Center and a Valley City bank. He said he could not see a gouge on Gibbs' left hand or a scratch on his right wrist on the images.

Under cross examination by Cruff, Edwards said that just because he could not see something on the images does not mean it wasn't there.

Witnesses have testified that Gibbs told Judd he received the gouge on his left hand on Sept. 14 and told his former sister-in-law on Sept. 15 that he received it "the other day."

Paulson adjourned for the day at 3:25 p.m. after Edwards' testimony. The defense will continue with its case today.

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

Audio files below courtesy of the Associated Press

The files are:

Fisher Edwards1: Gibbs attorney Dennis Fisher is asking Thomas Edwards,

a video analysis expert, to describe a magnified video images of Gibbs

walking through the booking area of the Barnes County Jail on Sept. 15,

2006. This was two days after Morgenstern was killed, and five days

before Gibbs was arrested for murder. Gibbs worked at the jail as a

jailer. The video was presented because it does not show a gouge on the

back of Gibbs' left hand. Prosecutors believe Morgenstern scratched

Gibbs' hand during her death struggle.

Fisher Edwards2: Fisher is asking Edwards to describe a video image of Gibbs opening a Barnes County Jail cell door with his left hand. It was Sept. 15, 2006, and Gibbs was working in the jail at the time. He had not been arrested for Morgenstern's murder.

Cruff Edwards1: this is prosecutor Brad Cruff, the Barnes County state's

attorney, asking Edwards about the Gibbs images he analyzed for the

defense. Cruff refers to a "dark-skinned person." Gibbs is a

light-skinned African-American.

Cruff Edwards2: Cruff asks Edwards to describe the term "discontinuity." By saying Gibbs has no "discontinuities" on the back of his left hand, Edwards says there are no gouges.

Cruff Edwards3: Cruff asks Edwards if his analysis could be fooled by a scab on the back of Gibbs' hand that was covering the gouge.

Cruff Edwards4: Cruff is asking Edwards about whether he knows of Gibbs' prior statements to others that his left hand was gouged before Sept.15, the day that Edwards says the videos show there was no gouge.

Defense attorney Dennis Fisher and Southeast District Judge John

Paulson's voices are also heard.