SHOWN LYING

During cross-examination of Chavez, prosecutors showed that he was lying: Police had taken photos of Chavez, wearing the watch, during his confession.

''Chavez's credibility was destroyed, and for all practical purposes, the case was over,'' Koch testified Tuesday.

Chavez was convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing 9-year-old Jimmy, who was riding his bike home from a school bus stop when he was snatched. Chavez was sentenced to death in the high-profile case.

Koch said Tuesday he never meant to suggest to Chavez that he should lie on the stand, though he acknowledged that's what he did.

''I was merely reciting to him what I thought he had told me,'' Koch said.

He called what he did ``a significant mistake.''

But that was as far as Koch went while being questioned by Chavez's current attorney, Bob Norgard. He did not bring up a 2-week-old claim that he was on medication that left him disoriented during trial.

''In an interview with us, he initially attributed it to the medication, but in a deposition yesterday, he said maybe it was that, maybe it wasn't,'' Norgard explained during a break in the hearing. ``Now Koch is saying he inadvertently thought that Chavez told him about the watch and after the fact he realized he was wrong.''

The medication issue was not dead yet, however. Nor was the issue of whether Chavez had at some point told Koch the bogus story about the police taking his watch.

CLAIM REPEATED

Under cross-examination by Assistant State Attorney Gail Levine, Koch reiterated his claim that Chavez never told him about a watch.

But Levine pointed out that Koch's case file included a list of questions that Chavez answered in his own handwriting prior to trial. Koch acknowledged the questions were his. And among them were questions about the watch.

'In fact, at some point he did tell me they took the watch away and I confronted him at that time that he mentioned that. I told him `this could not have happened' because there was a photo of Mr. Chavez with the watch,'' Koch said.

Then he offered an excuse.

''At the time of the trial, as you probably know, I was under a doctor's suggestion -- an order -- not to try the case,'' he said. ``I was on medication for vertigo and a hearing disorder. There were times that I had to go to bed early.''

''I, in fact, got that information confused,'' he added.

It wasn't the first time Koch's testimony about his role in the case was challenged. Two weeks ago he claimed that his boss at the time, Public Defender Bennett Brummer, told him to moderate his efforts to defend Chavez because Brummer didn't want his office associated with such a notorious client during an election year.

Brummer denied the charges, and several other assistant public defenders testified he never interfered in the case. Two testified that Koch actually prevented them from fully investigating a story Chavez told them about being brutally abused as a child.

The two assistant public defenders withdrew from the case after conflicts with Koch.

Two weeks ago, Koch accused both of them of trying to get Chavez to lie on the stand. At that point in the days-long hearing, he didn't mention anything about how he did get Chavez to lie.

Circuit Judge Marc Shumacher is set to rule on the case in mid-March.

MAIN ISSUE

To throw out Chavez's conviction, or even his death sentence, Shumacher will have to conclude that the defense team made serious enough mistakes to call into question whether a better group of lawyers could have won him an acquittal, or at least a life sentence instead of the death penalty.