Steven Avery attorney claims ‘new and compelling evidence’ has emerged in ‘Making a Murderer’ case

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Steven Avery, the Wisconsin man currently serving a life sentence for the Oct. 31, 2005 murder of photographer Teresa Halbach, is seeking a new trial, with his lawyer claiming that new evidence shows that Avery’s conviction is tainted.

Halbach’s death was at the center of the Netflix documentary series "Making a Murderer." Defense attorney Kathleen Zellner claims in a court filing that the evidence points to another man who appeared in the show, Avery’s nephew Bobby Dassey, as a likely culprit.

"Two new witnesses have emerged in Mr. Avery’s case with new and compelling evidence about a murder mystery that has intrigued a worldwide audience," Zellner wrote in a motion for post-conviction relief filed Tuesday in Manitowoc County court in Wisconsin. "The rush to judgment and tunnel vision that led to the arrest, prosecution and conviction of Mr. Avery is exposed by these new witnesses who provide new and undisputed evidence that directly links Bobby Dassey … to the murder of Teresa Halbach and the framing of Mr. Avery."

This is not the first time Zellner has floated the idea that Dassey, whose brother Brendan was a co-defendant in the case, was responsible for Halbach’s death, and she made clear that the accusation is not the point of her motion. 

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Wisconsin's highest court on Wednesday rejected a petition from "Making a Murderer" subject Steven Avery, who is serving a life serving for a 2005 slaying.  (Wisconsin Department of Corrections)

"Mr. Avery does not have to prove who committed this terrible crime to receive relief. This is not his intent or purpose," she wrote.

"However," she added, "he does have a right to prove he did not receive a fair trial."

The basis for that argument is that Avery’s trial lawyers had not received the recording of a phone call made to the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office by Thomas Sowinski, a newspaper deliverer who said he saw Bobby and someone else pushing Halbach’s vehicle onto Avery’s salvage yard where it was found by law enforcement officials later that day. Following that discovery, investigators found evidence including bone fragments matching Halbach’s DNA in a burn pit, blood samples matching Halbach and Avery in the vehicle, and a bullet with Halbach’s DNA in Avery’s garage. 

Avery claims that his blood was planted at the scene after a cut on his finger dripped in his bathroom sink where it was collected.

Bobby Dassey, Steven Avery's nephew and the brother of Brendan Dassey, a 17-year old also charged in Tereasa Halbach's death points out Steven Avery in the courtroom to begin his testimony at the Calumet County Courthouse during third day of Steve Avery's trial in his murder case Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2007, in Chilton, Wis.  Avery is accused, along with his 17-year-old nephew, of killing Teresa Halbach, 25, after she went to the family's rural salvage lot to photograph a minivan they had for sale.  (AP Photo/Sheboygan Press, Bruce Halmo, Pool) (AP)

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The motion says that Sowinski reached out to Avery’s current legal team in December 2020 and signed an affidavit in April 2021, in which he said that after he learned that Halbach’s car was found on Avery’s property, he contacted the local sheriff’s office.

"This new evidence creates a reasonable probability that, had the jury heard the new evidence, it would have had a reasonable doubt as to the defendant’s guilt. Therefore Mr. Avery should be granted a new trial," the motion says.

Following the discovery of the call, an investigator for Avery’s defense team spoke to Sowinski’s ex-girlfriend Devon Novak, who identified Sowinski’s voice on the recording of the phone call and corroborated what he had said about what happened.

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The motion also discusses another witness, Kevin Rahmlow, who told Avery’s defense team in 2017 – and repeated in a sworn affidavit – that saw Halbach’s car parked in a different location on November 4-5, 2005, which means, the motion argues, "that it must have been moved and planted on the Avery property before it was discovered on November 5.

As a result of this evidence not being available to Avery at the time of his trial, Zellner is asking the court for a new trial or an evidentiary hearing. The court rejected a previous motion in July 2021.