FILE - In this March 13, 2007 file photo, Steven Avery listens to testimony in the courtroom at the Calumet County Courthouse in Chilton, Wis. A lawyer is asking for a new trial for Avery, a Wisconsin... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this March 13, 2007 file photo, Steven Avery listens to testimony in the courtroom at the Calumet County Courthouse in Chilton, Wis. A lawyer is asking for a new trial for Avery, a Wisconsin... (Associated Press) 
 
 APPLETON, Wis. (AP) — A lawyer on Wednesday asked for a new trial for a Wisconsin man convicted in a case profiled in the "Making a Murderer" Netflix series. 
 
 Steven Avery's conviction was based on planted evidence and false testimony, attorney Kathleen Zellner says in a 1,272-page document she filed. She contends Avery deserves a new trial "in the interests of justice" and because "the real controversy was never tried," USA Today Network-Wisconsin (http://post.cr/2rCtIju ) reported. 
 
 The Wisconsin Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request from The Associated Press for comment. 
 
 Avery, 54, was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of first-degree intentional homicide in the 2005 death of 25-year-old photographer Teresa Halbach in Manitowoc County. 
 
 Avery's nephew, Brendan Dassey, confessed to detectives he helped his uncle rape and kill Halbach at the Avery family's salvage yard. A judge overturned Dassey's conviction in August, ruling that investigators took advantage of the then-16-year-old Dassey's cognitive disabilities and tricked him into confessing. State attorneys are appealing that decision. 
 
 Both Avery and Dassey maintain their innocence. The case gained national attention in 2015 after Netflix aired "Making a Murderer," a multi-part documentary examining Halbach's death. Authorities who worked on the case say the series was biased. The filmmakers have defended their work. 
 
 In Wednesday's filing, Zellner contends that Avery's trial attorneys failed to prove that evidence had been planted because they lacked experts and they did not conduct a thorough investigation. She also maintains that a spare key for Halbach's sport utility vehicle found in Avery's bedroom was planted by sheriff's deputies. Officials involved in the case have denied any misconduct. 
 
 "Because the State did not need to establish motive, it did not spend any time trying to figure out why Ms. Halbach was murdered," Zellner wrote. "Both Mr. Avery and Ms. Halbach are victims of a justice system whose success depends upon the integrity, competence and devotion of judges, law enforcement, prosecutors, and defense attorneys. Both Ms. Halbach and Mr. Avery have yet to receive justice." 
 
 Dean Strang, one of Avery's trial lawyers, said he and Avery's other trial attorney, Jerry Buting, are glad that Zellner filed the motion and its supporting documents. 
 
 "All that really matters here, to us and we hope to everyone, is that we get closer to the truth in this case and to justice for everyone," Strang said in an email to the AP. 
 
 In November, Zellner announced that an agreement had been signed to begin independent scientific testing on several critical pieces of evidence. 
 
 Avery and Dassey contend they were framed by law enforcement angry with Avery for filing a lawsuit against Manitowoc County over his wrongful imprisonment for a sexual assault he didn't commit. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Information from: Post-Crescent Media, http://www.postcrescent.com 

 The attorney for Steven Avery, the man at the center of the hit Netflix film Making A Murderer, today filed a more than 1,000 page court motion laying out what is to veteran observers of the case the most compelling counter-narrative to date of the state’s case-in-chief. 
 
 Kathleen Zellner‘s filing accuses a former boyfriend of victim Teresa Halbach of murdering her. Zellner also accuses Manitowoc County, Wisconsin law enforcement agencies of both planting and concealing evidence related to Halbach’s murder. 
 
 That former boyfriend, Ryan Hillegas, led the volunteer search for Teresa Halbach when she was first reported missing in November 2005. 
 
 Zellner’s motion argues that “jealousy was the motive” for the killing. 
 
 Hillegas has been neither charged with nor convicted of a crime in relation to the Halbach disappearance. Zellner’s accusations remain just that — accusations. 
 
 Hillegas, the motion argues, was still romantically interested in Halbach, but she was no longer interested in him. As Halbach’s romantic interests turned elsewhere, the filing argues, Hillegas became increasingly jealous and eventually killed her. 
 
 The filing also accuses Sgt. Andrew Colborn of the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Department of playing a substantial role in obscuring the truth. Colborn had played a role in the botched conviction and eventual exoneration of Avery over a 1985 rape case. Former Calumet County Sheriff Jerry Pagel attempted to exempt Colborn and other officers with either a real or a perceived conflict of interest from the new investigation into Steven Avery, but that attempt failed. 
 
 The filing also states and/or argues: 
 
 Hillegas had an “abusive relationship with Ms. Halbach,” the victim. 
 
 Hillegas had no alibi for October 31, 2005, the date of Halbach’s murder, or for subsequent days. (The motion also states, however, that the former boyfriend “was not asked to provide an alibi.” 
 
 Hillegas’s cell phone records contain “significant gaps” during critical time periods on the date of the murder. 
 
 The former boyfriend “intentionally misled” investigators by “volunteer[ing] false information” about damage to the parking light of Halbach’s vehicle. 
 
 Halbach never filed an insurance claim for this damage to her vehicle, as the former boyfriend had told investigators. 
 
 “It is most likely that … Ms. Halbach departed the Avery property, departed the Zipperer property, and was killed after she arrived home.” Zipperer is the last name of one of Halbach’s other appointments the day she was killed. 
 
 Hillegas’s cell phone logs contain a gap at around the time Steven Avery claims he saw headlights in the salvage lot. (Before he was arrested in November 2005, Avery told this writer that he had seen lights on the property before Halbach’s car was found, but could not trace them.) 
 
 “The headlights were from Sgt. [Andrew] Colborn’s personal vehicle and he had a friend of Ms . Halbach with him to search the Avery property without a search warrant because he did not have probable cause to be on the Avery property at that point in time.” 
 
 Images of Hillegas taken in the days after the search indicate that he had been scratched by fingernails. 
 
 Hillegas “delete[d] some of [Halbach’s] voicemails in order to prevent family and friends from becoming concerned by a full voice mailbox. 
 
 That the former boyfriend, Hillegas, was the one who planted Halbach’s vehicle, a Toyota Rav4, on the Avery salvage lot. 
 
 The former boyfriend “returned to the Avery property with Sgt. Colborn i n the evening on November 4, 2005, under the pretense of helping Sgt. Colborn search for Ms. Halbach’s vehicle.” Colborn, the filing argues, had no idea he was with the real killer or that the killer was “unwittingly” leading him to Halbach’s car, which the former boyfriend had planted. 
 
 n the evening on November 4, 2005, under the pretense of helping Sgt. Colborn search for Ms. Halbach’s vehicle.” Colborn, the filing argues, had no idea he was with the real killer or that the killer was “unwittingly” leading him to Halbach’s car, which the former boyfriend had planted. The former boyfriend “misrepresented his identity” to others in the community in the days after Halbach’s disappearance. 
 
 Hillegas “accessed the Avery and surrounding properties using a fake name.” He is said, the motion claims, to have used the name “Kilgus.” 
 
 Hillegas “directed Pam [Sturm] to search Avery’ s Auto Salvage.” (Sturm was the purported discoverer of Halbach’s vehicle on the Avery property.) “While [the former boyfriend] provided only maps and missing person posters to other citizen searchers, [the former boyfriend] provided Pam and her daughter Nikole, the only searchers allowed access to the Avery Salvage Yard, with a digital camera and Calumet County Sheriff Pagel’s direct line. 
 
 “Clearly, Mr. Hillegas knew that Pam would discover Ms. Halbach’s vehicle.” 
 
 The motion also argues that a second burial site was discovered, but that Sgt. Colborn of the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Department “persuaded everyone it was not a burial site.” That second alleged burial site was located off of the Avery property. 
 
 The motion further argues that Avery’s trial attorneys, Jerry Buting and Dean Strang, ineffectively assisted in Avery’s defense. 
 
 It also goes on to argue that the special prosecutor in the case, Ken Kratz, committed “ethical violations” which “violated” Avery’s constitutional right to a fair trial, in part by releasing information to the press about the “fabricated” purported confession of Brendan Dassey. 
 
 The filing also contains information that raises serious questions regarding evidence that the prosecution used to convict Avery. Zellner contends that a bullet that the State claims went through Halbach’s skull had zero traces of bone fragments embedded in it, and thus could not have been the bullet that killed her. 
 
 Zellner describes a rigorous testing process where experts examined the bullet and found no evidence of bone. One expert performed simulations on other bullets that were fired in test settings that were found to have traces of bone fragment in them after being fired. Therefore, Zellner argues, the bullet put forth as evidence by the prosecution could not have been the one that killed Teresa Halbach. 
 
 An expert also said that traces of some other substance that looked like wood were found on the prosecution’s bullet. Zellner writes that an inspection of Avery’s garage, where Halbach was found, showed that there was particle board there, which theoretically could have been the material embedded in the prosecution’s bullet. 
 
 Additionally, Zellner says that a marking of dried red liquid on the bullet that was in evidence is an unknown substance that she doubts is blood based on its color and past DNA tests. She says that it’s more likely that it’s paint, and that its texture “suggests that the droplet was deposited after the bullet was fired and came to rest.” 
 
 The same expert who tested the substances on the bullet is also going to test samples of wood and paint from Avery’s garage to see if they could have been the substances found on the State’s bullet. He will submit an affidavit upon completion of the analysis. 
 
 Zellner claims that another test flat out exonerates Avery. She describes how a brain fingerprinting analysis performed by an expert who developed the test showed that Avery lacked knowledge of Halbach’s murder that the real killer would have. The expert studied Avery’s brainwaves when presented stimuli in the form of information about the murder that didn’t come out during the trial, and that the real killer would know. The test, Zellner asserts, concluded with near certainty that Avery did not previously have knowledge of the information. 
 
 The motion requests an evidentiary hearing in light of all of this, and claims that ultimately, the court should vacate Avery’s conviction and order a new trial. 
 
 Aaron Keller is an attorney and streaming trial host for the LawNewz Network. In 2005, he was a reporter for the NBC television affiliate in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he covered the Halbach murder case starting from the day her family reported her missing. 
 
 Disclosure: Zellner’s motion contains a reference to a television news report which may have been prepared and presented by the author of this piece. 
 
 Ronn Blitzer contributed to this report. 
 
 Editor’s note: this piece has been updated.
– A lawyer for Steven Avery requested a new trial Wednesday and made a stunning accusation in the case made famous by Making a Murderer: Kathleen Zellner's 1,272-page filing claims Ryan Hillegas, ex-boyfriend of murder victim Teresa Halbach, is the real killer. Hillegas led the volunteer search for Halbach after she disappeared in November 2005, the Law Newz blog reports. Avery is serving life for the murder and has long claimed that he was framed by vindictive authorities. His nephew, Brendan Dassey, was also convicted in the case, but his conviction was overturned by a federal court in Wisconsin last summer. In Zellner's filing, she suggests that Manitowoc County sheriff's deputies conspired with Hillegas to plant evidence—including Halbach's vehicle—in Avery's salvage yard, WISN reports. She says that during the original trial, Avery's lawyers lacked the experts who could prove that evidence had been planted. Trial attorney Dean Strang tells the AP he is glad Zellner filed the motion. "All that really matters here, to us and we hope to everyone, is that we get closer to the truth in this case and to justice for everyone," he says. (Zellner is having key pieces of evidence independently retested.)