A judge has refused to order Gov. Jay Nixon to testify in the third murder trial of a northwest Missouri man.

Platte County Circuit Judge Owens Lee Hull Jr. denied the motion by lawyers for Mark Woodworth following a brief hearing Thursday.

Mark Woodworth is facing a retrial for the 1990 killing of Cathy Robertson, a neighbor in Chillicothe.

 

 

Woodworth sought to depose Nixon about his knowledge of a series of letters between state and local prosecutors, a Livingston County judge and Robertson’s husband.

Nixon was the state’s attorney general when Woodworth was indicted by a Livingston County grand jury two decades ago. The case was handled by a special state prosecutor, Kenny Hulshof, after the Livingston County prosecutor refused to press charges.