LAS VEGAS — Margaret Rudin's murder and eavesdropping trial came to a screeching halt Thursday when the defendant requested a mistrial because of ineffective representation.

Emerging from chambers after Rudin spent more than two hours talking to defense lawyers Michael Amador and Tom Pitaro, Judge Joseph Bonaventure asked Rudin to stand up.

"What is the issue?" Bonaventure asked.

In soft tones, Rudin said she felt that her lawyers were not adequately prepared for witnesses.

"I would like to ask for a mistrial," Rudin said,

Bonaventure asked to see Rudin and the defense team in chambers and indicated, outside the presence of the jury, that he will hold a hearing on Rudin's request at 5 p.m. ET.

The sudden halt to the trial, which began February 23 and had been expected to go on for another month, comes the day after Rudin, 57, was skewered from the witness stand by her youngest sister.

Dona Cantrell-Robinson, 49, supported the testimony of earlier prosecution witnesses who said that Rudin seemed unconcerned about Ron Rudin's disappearance on Dec. 18, 1994, and was preoccupied with accounting for his $11 million in holdings.

"She said, 'I don't give a s***' [what happened to him]" Cantrell testified Wednesday.

Amador, who has said he is representing Rudin pro bono, has been criticized by local media and privately by some courtroom observers for being late, ill-prepared and for focusing on extraneous information. A column that ran in Thursday's Las Vegas Review-Journal, described the pummeling Amador has received at the hands of Bonaventure because of his courtroom tactics.

"From the outset Amador's theory of the case has been buried beneath his confusing rhetoric and at times mystifying non sequiturs," wrote columnist John Smith.

Amador, who was assigned Pitaro as his co-counsel by the judge just weeks before the trial began, has been trying to convince the 12-member jury that Ron Rudin had enemies and that two former business associates stood to gain financially if they could help police pin the killing on Margaret Rudin.

The charred, decapitated remains of Ron Rudin, 64, were discovered on January 21, 1995, in the desert surrounding Las Vegas. Margaret Rudin was indicted on charges of murder and eavesdropping in 1997 but was not apprehended until after she was featured a second time on the TV program "America's Most Wanted."

Bonaventure admonished Amador for being late and poorly prepared several times this week. On Tuesday, Bonaventure ripped into the lawyer for trying to introduce into evidence numerous legal documents related to Ron Rudin's trust and interest in a major real estate project.

The outspoken jurist, whose East Coast roots are betrayed by his booming voice, told Amador that he was confused and suspected the jury was as well by all the extraneous information. Frustrated by the pace of the trial, Bonaventure further criticized Amador Wednesday for failing to file pretrial motions concerning Cantrell's testimony. It was not immediately clear whether Rudin was also dissatisfied with the representation of Pitaro, who was excused by Bonaventure Wednesday to attend the funeral of a close friend in the legal community. Pitaro discovered the body of his longtime friend, who died of natural causes, on March 9.

Rudin spent most of the morning Thursday with Amador and Pitaro. Prosecutors Gary Guymon and Chris Owens shrugged their shoulders when asked about the reasons for the delayed continuation of Amador's cross-examination of Cantrell. Amador indicated Wednesday that he intended to press Cantrell about her long troubled relationship with her sister, relationship that he claims included violence against Rudin.

Cantrell's mental history and use of prescribed antidepressants have affected the witness's memory and perception of reality, Amador argued. He charged that Cantrell's testimony was "made up" out of a desire by Cantrell to assist police and see her sister go to prison.

Guymon told Court TV's Mary Jane Stevenson during the lunch break that the timing of Rudin's motion — the day after the prosecution started "putting nails in the coffin, so to speak" — is interesting.

"Quite honestly, there is an awful lot of disappointment. We finally got the show on the road. We finally got the trial started," Guymon said. "Now we are getting to the point where we are ready to prove who did it."

Guymon said he has faced worse-prepared lawyers but dodged questions about whether he found Amador to be incompetent.

"I have tried cases against lawyers who had been far more prepared, but that is something for the judge to decide," he said.