Moe Gibbs will have the same attorneys when he stands trial a second time in the death of a Valley City State student, but this time the public will be picking up the tab.

Southeast District Judge John Paulson has ruled that Gibbs, who is charged with murder in the death of Mindy Morgenstern, is indigent. Gibbs, on his application for a court-appointed attorney, listed both his monthly income and total assets as "0" and wrote "incarcerated, no job or money," as the reasons he cannot afford a private attorney.

Gibbs, 35, a former Barnes County jailer, is accused of killing Morgenstern in her off-campus apartment last September. A deadlocked jury in Minot could not reach a verdict in the case earlier this summer. A second trial is scheduled starting Oct. 22 in Bismarck.

Gibbs was represented by Jeff Bredahl and Dennis Fisher in his first trial. Court officials said the Bredahl and Fisher firm of Fargo had been privately retained.

Robin Huseby, executive director of the North Dakota Commission on Legal Counsel for Indigents, this week named the firm to represent Gibbs again, this time as public defenders. She said Bredahl and Fisher agreed to it. The attorneys did not immediately return a telephone call Thursday seeking comment.

"For the defendant's sake, it was better to keep the consistency of having the same attorneys," Huseby said.

It also might be cheaper. "When you get a new attorney in the middle of something, they have to step back and go through huge amounts of transcripts, research, really step back to square one," Huseby said.

Public defenders receive $65 per hour. The majority of the money comes from the state general fund, Huseby said. A smaller portion comes from court fees paid by defendants.