MINOT - A key exhibit in the Moe Gibbs murder trial - a diagram of his purported cell phone calls and text messages - should not be made public, a judge decided, even though it was displayed in court and filmed by a television camera.

Reporters for The Forum newspaper and the Associated Press asked Friday for an image of the diagram, which was shown to jurors Friday on a projection screen. A television camera in the courtroom filmed close-ups of the information for broadcast Friday night.

Trial exhibits are often open to public inspection. Southeast District Judge John Paulson rebuffed the request to make public a copy of the diagram, or to allow reporters to photograph it. A paper copy was not available, lawyers said.

The diagram suggests a timeline when Gibbs was allegedly making cell phone calls and sending text messages on Sept. 13, 2006, the day that Mindy Morgenstern was killed in her Valley City apartment. Gibbs, 34, is charged with murder in the death of the 22-year-old Morgenstern.

Jeff Bredahl, one of Gibbs' attorneys, said Friday that allowing the timeline to be published in The Forum, North Dakota's largest newspaper, would be "unfair and highly prejudicial" to his client. Jurors could view the diagram in the newspaper and accept its conclusions as gospel, Bredahl said, even through defense lawyers dispute the information it contains.

Paulson sided with Bredahl, saying he would deny the request. He also cited a concern that KVLY-TV of Fargo, which is operating a television camera in the courtroom and supplying video to other stations as part of a pool arrangement, would need a copy as well.

A photographer filmed the diagram when it was displayed in court Friday, and it was included in television news reports Friday night.

The arguments were made out of the hearing of the jury, which had already been dismissed from the Ward County Courthouse for the weekend.