DECATUR, Ga. — Accused murderer Colvin "Butch" Hinton declined to testify on his own behalf Monday after his lawyer presented a one-day defense case consisting mostly of expert witnesses who criticized an analysis of masking tape conducted on behalf of the state.

Three of the five witnesses who testified for the defense told jurors that the analysis which linked masking tape found wrapped around the ring of missing sophomore Shannon Melendi, with a roll of tape found in Hinton's vehicle, could not be trusted because of sloppy scientific procedures.

Hinton is accused of kidnapping and slaying Melendi, a 19-year-old sophomore at Emory University who disappeared on March 26, 1994, after working at a softball tournament where the defendant was an umpire.

Although investigators never found Melendi's body, prosecutors have attempted to link Hinton to her disappearance through circumstantial evidence, statements he made to inmates while in prison on unrelated arson charges, and his criminal history of sexual assaults against women.

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Mary Miller of MVA Scientific Consultants, an expert witness for the state, testified previously that she found specks of rare metals on both the tape wrapped around the ring and from Hinton's car — and established that Hinton regularly worked around those metals at his job at Delta Airlines.

But after reviewing Miller's work, metallurgy consultant Edward Basta told jurors Monday that he also analyzed the tape and could not find any of the rare metals such as tungsten-cobalt, which Miller said linked the samples.

"We felt what we knew what we'd probably find, and we didn't find it," Basta said. "That was interesting and curious."

Basta said he read the report of MVA's lab work and then tried to locate the same specks of metals on the tape samples using similar equipment. But Basta was unable to replicate Miller's findings, he said.

One of the main problems, he said, was that Miller and her colleagues failed to photograph each speck of rare metal they located on the tape samples. Of 211 high-powered scans of the tape, Basta said that MVA employees took only 14 photographs, and documented many of their findings not by charts but by handwritten notes.

Basta said Miller's report "was vague and ambiguous."

Defense attorney B.J. Bernstein also called softball player Vince Murphy to the stand Monday.

Murphy told jurors he made a phone call after 5 p.m. on March 26, 1994, from the gas station where Melendi's car was found abandoned the next day. Murphy said he did not notice the vehicle in the lot when he made the call.

Private detective Garfield Trumble also testified for the defense Monday and refuted claims that one of Hinton's former co-workers once borrowed a book from the defendant about getting rid of bodies.

Trumble questioned the book's existence, testifying that after conducting an extensive search on the Internet, he could not find the title "Get Rid of It," by George Hayduke.

Prosecutors are expected to present a brief rebuttal case Tuesday. Closing arguments are scheduled to begin Wednesday morning. If convicted, Hinton faces life in prison.