FORT COLLINS — The case against Tim Masters was so close that the lead prosecutor thought he'd lost at the end of testimony and arguments, one of the man's former attorneys testified this morning.

In the spring of 1999, Masters was convicted of stabbing and sexually mutilating Peggy Hettrick a dozen years earlier even though prosecutors were unable to find any physical evidence — hair, DNA, fingerprints or fibers — tying him to the crime.

Eric Fisher, one of two attorneys who defended Masters at his trial, took the stand this morning. Attorneys David Wymore and Maria Liu, who now represent Masters, have filed a series of motions accusing police and prosecutors of intentionally hiding evidence that would have aided the original defense team.

They are expected to file a motion for a new trial in the coming weeks.

Hettrick, a 37-year-old Fashion Bar manager, was apparently out walking late at night when she was attacked. Her killer stabbed her in the back with a large knife, then sliced away flesh from her genitals and left breast and left her body in a field.

That field was next to the home of Masters, then a 15-year-old high school student, and he quickly became the prime focus of the investigation.

Fisher, a former deputy district attorney in Denver who later went into private practice, testified that prosecutors had a duty to turn over "exculpatory" evidence and were bound to seek it out and "not turn a blind eye" to materials that might aid the defense.

"You turn over everything you've got," Fisher said.

Wymore, in earlier hearings, has entered into evidence a number of documents that were never turned over to Masters' original defense team — including a report from a plastic surgeon that contradicted the prosecution's theory of the crime and documents showing that police conducted an elaborate sting on the first anniversary of the killing.

At one point, Wymore asked Fisher if he agreed Hettrick's killing was a "whodunit." Fisher did, and went on to say that he believed the case was so close that "any single piece of exculpatory evidence can tip the balance and he's not convicted."

"It's clearly weak, and they knew it was weak because they didn't file it for 12 years," Fisher said. "That's your first clue that they did not have a case because they did not have probable cause to file it. ... They had zero direct evidence other than the fact he lived next to where the body was found."

He said that Terry Gilmore, the lead prosecutor at Masters' trial, confided that he believed the man would be acquitted.

"At the end of the case, Terry Gilmore walked up to me and said, 'Good job, you won this case,'" Fisher said.

Gilmore is the focus of much of the work by Masters' attorneys. Now a sitting judge, he led the prosecution of Masters.

Gilmore also was acquainted with Dr. Richard Hammond, who killed himself in March 1995 after he was arrested in a sexual exploitation case. Hammond, an ophthalmologist, was jailed after a housesitter discovered an elaborate secret videotaping system that filmed dozens of women using a bathroom in his home. Many of the videos included extreme close-ups of women's genitals.

Wymore has argued that Hammond should have been investigated as a potential alternate suspect — and that information about him should have been turned over to the defense before Masters went on trial.

Both Gilmore and his fellow prosecutor, Jolene Blair, are expected to testify, perhaps as early as this afternoon.

Blair is also a sitting judge, and Masters' attorneys successfully had all the judges in the district removed from the case.

Retired Judge Joseph Weatherby from Fort Morgan is hearing the case now.