DECATUR, Ga. — Prosecutors rested their case against accused murderer and kidnapper Colvin "Butch" Hinton after a brief rebuttal Tuesday in which they called two key expert witnesses to the stand to defend their findings against defense accusations of sloppy science and poor record keeping.

The majority of Hinton's one-day defense case Monday focused on discrediting the findings of Mary Miller and Tim Vander Wood, both scientists with MVA Scientific Consultants who found microscopic specks of metal on several tape samples linked Butch Hinton to the ring of missing Emory University student Shannon Melendi.

Three metallurgy specialists testified for Hinton that they could not replicate the findings of the two scientists, and also questioned their record keeping, microscope upkeep, and the lack of photographs of the minute particles in question.

But Vander Wood ridiculed the defense experts' findings and told jurors that, based on his company's reports, other experts should have been able to find the rare metals such as tungsten-cobalt on the sticky sides of the tape that linked Hinton to the ring.

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"It should be repeatable by anyone with the proper training and equipment," said Vander Wood.

Prosecutors allege that Hinton abducted and killed the 19-year-old Melendi after the two worked together in an early afternoon softball game on March 26, 1994. Melendi has not been seen since that game, and with no body and no crime scene, there has been a dearth of physical and forensic evidence presented to jurors during the trial.

In a sign of how important both the prosecution and the defense believe the testimony about metal specks on masking tape is to the trial, jurors have sat through nearly two full days of highly technical expert witness testimony and debate, not only about how the metal was located using high-powered electron microscopes, but also about issues as obscure as the effect of a change in temperature on the calibration of such lab equipment.

On cross-examination Vander Wood conceded that it would be nearly impossible to replicate his lab's findings of the rare metals, but continued to disagree with the defense expert witnesses that the work of MVA was faulty.

Closing arguments are set to begin early Wednesday morning and the jury is expected to begin deliberating by lunchtime. If convicted, Hinton faces life in prison.