'DESTROYED' ON STAND

''Koch claims he's going to come into court and say that he was disoriented that day and he got Mr. Chavez to say those things,'' Norgard said Thursday.

The watch became a peripheral but potent bit of state's evidence when prosecutors showed pictures of Chavez wearing it while showing detectives where he had buried Jimmy's body. Prosecutors ''destroyed'' Chavez on the stand, ruining his credibility, Norgard said.

Norgard had initially dropped the claim that Koch got Chavez to lie, one of several that Chavez has made in an effort to get a new trial, or at least get off Death Row.

Now he is re-raising it and plans to put Koch on the stand on Tuesday. ''The state caught [Chavez] in a flat-out lie,'' Norgard says. 'Now Koch's coming in and saying, `I put him up to it.' ''

It's not clear what effect Koch's new testimony might have on Chavez's chances for a new trial, but death-penalty experts say it's significant.

''If a defense lawyer in a death-penalty prosecution is taking certain medications that would affect him physically or mentally, then that is a serious issue,'' Miami attorney Bruce Fleisher said. ``He may not be effective as counsel if he is taking these medications.''

Koch has already played an explosive role in the post-conviction hearings. He testified last week that his boss, Public Defender Bennett Brummer, told him not to vigorously defend Chavez because Brummer was concerned about political fallout due to his office being tied to such a notorious case.

Brummer has repeatedly denied that claim.

Jimmy's 1995 disappearance in the Redland and the discovery of his dismembered body three months later set South Florida on edge. The child was on his way home from a school bus when he was snatched.

The case attracted so much publicity that the trial had to be moved to Orlando.

REACTION

On Thursday, Brummer said he had no idea Koch was medicated during the trial.

''I had no knowledge and saw no evidence of Art Koch's alleged impairment during his representation of Juan Carlos Chavez,'' Brummer said in a prepared statement. ``Mr. Koch's latest allegation is one in a series of shifting and baseless allegations he has made since he was placed on probation for abusive behavior in 2003 by me, five years after the Chavez trial ended.''

Koch also accused two other assistant public defenders who worked with him on the case of trying to persuade Chavez to lie.

Norgard said he didn't know why Koch was only now making the claim that he was on medication and got Chavez to lie.

''I don't know whether he was just trying to drop a bomb or what,'' Norgard said.

`OUT OF WHACK'

Koch blames his own role in Chavez lying on four medications he was taking together that sometimes left him disoriented, Norgard said.

Koch's doctors thought he might have had a stroke and put him on the drugs to control his blood pressure, Norgard said.

''You can really get out of whack with those,'' he said.

Koch has declined to speak to The Miami Herald about the trial or his medical history, but Norgard said Koch plans to submit his medical records to Circuit Judge Marc Schumacher, who is hearing the case.

''I may need to bring in his doctors to talk about the interactions of the medications,'' Norgard said.

Even if Chavez wins a new trial, prosecutors have a mountain of evidence against him, including his confession and the fact that the boy's backpack was found in a trailer where Chavez was living.