BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — A convicted killer tried to use an Animal Planet show to get a new trial, officials told WFTV Wednesday. Brett Huck was convicted of killing his girlfriend, Misty Morse, in 2003.
For the past decade, Huck has been claiming that he is innocent. On Wednesday, his attorneys were trying to blame the 10-year-old murder on another boyfriend of the victim, and planned to bring up an interview with a detective on Animal Planet as part of a plan to get a new trial.
"Mr. Huck should be allowed to show his innocence," said Huck's attorney.
Almost a decade after Huck was first accused of murdering Morse by strangling her and then dumping her body in the Indian River Lagoon. Huck was back in court Wednesday, proclaiming his innocence.
His defense attorneys are trying to get a new trial. They claim they have new evidence that Morse's previous boyfriend, Teddy Underwood, was the last person to see her alive and choked other women long after the murder.
"I passed out for what I think was a few seconds and woke up on the ground," witness Rebecca Schreb said.
The women never went to police and Underwood was never arrested for battery. He took the stand and denied the claims.
"Isn't it true when you got out of jail you choked her," Huck's defense attorney asked.
"No," Underwood replied.
Prosecutors fought to keep the original murder conviction in place.
"There is no way something that occurred five years after the trial couldn't affect the outcome of the trial," said Asst. State Attorney Russ Bausch.
During the trial, prosecutors showed jurors that dog hair stuck to a piece of duct tape on Morse's body matched Huck's dog. That evidence provoked the interest of an Animal Planet show.
Sheriff's Agent Gary Harrell was interviewed by the program. Defense attorneys said he provided a different timeline than he did during trial, but prosecutors said that too shouldn't matter.
So far, the judge has rejected the arguments from the defense attorneys, but Judge Maxwell has yet to issue a final ruling.