Jeffery Trevino's attorney is seeking to have his client's second-degree unintentional murder conviction thrown out, claiming an insufficient legal basis for the jury verdict handed down this month.
Trevino was convicted Oct. 2 of killing his wife, Kira Steger, after a two-week trial. His attorney, John Conard, filed a motion Wednesday arguing that Trevino should be acquitted because the injuries to Steger rose to the level of third-degree assault, which does not support the murder conviction.
Minnesota law defines second-degree unintentional murder as an act causing the death of "a human being, without intent to effect the death of any person, while committing or attempting to commit a felony offense other than criminal sexual conduct in the first or second degree with force or violence or a drive-by shooting …"
Conard wrote in his motion that "there is insufficient support for the verdict as a matter of law because assault in the 3rd degree cannot serve as a predicate felony for a felony murder charge."
Assistant Ramsey County attorneys Richard Dusterhoft and Andrew Johnson told jurors at trial that Trevino, 39, killed Steger, 30, because she was having an affair and wanted to leave their marriage.
Steger was last seen alive in public having dinner and bowling with Trevino on Feb. 21 at the Mall of America. Trevino reported her missing to police on Feb. 24, but prosecutors believe Steger was killed within two hours of texting the other man she was seeing shortly before midnight on Feb. 21.
Conard argued at trial that the prosecution had incomplete forensic evidence and that someone involved with marijuana could have killed Steger, whose friend testified that she used the drug recreationally.
Conard wrote in his motion that Steger's broken finger was a third-degree assault that did not support the conviction and that there was no evidence that death resulted from "the other serious injury," a cut above Steger's left eyebrow.
