LAS VEGAS — Margaret Rudin's murder trial hit another snag Monday when lawyers for the so-called Black Widow accused prosecutors of withholding evidence that an important state witness may have lied on the stand.

As the two-month long trial — a comedy of delays, defense gaffes and mistrial motions — winds down and is expected to end this week, the socialite's defense team told Judge Joseph Bonaventure the alleged violations by the district attorney's office were serious enough to warrant dismissing all the charges related to the 1994 slaying of Rudin's millionaire fifth husband, Ron.

But prosecutor Gary Guymon said such a move would be "absolutely outrageous" and claimed there was no misconduct. Bonaventure will rule on the motion Tuesday morning, but implied Monday afternoon that he would allow the case to go forward. He said he would, however, let the defense call two people to impeach the credibility of key witness Bruce Honabach.

Honabach is the antiques dealer who testified during the first week of Rudin's trial that he sold the 57-year-old a trunk which authorities contend she used to take her husband's dismembered corpse to a remote desert dump site after she had shot him to death. Honabach also told jurors that Rudin was a mean, spiteful woman who talked about wanting her husband dead so many times that he lost count. The defense attacked him as a liar who was only interested in getting reward money, but he stuck by his story.

Defense lawyer Michael Amador said Monday outside the jury's presence that another antiques dealer, Donald Schaupeter, called him Friday evening after court broke for the day to tell him that after several weeks of soul searching, he had decided to come forward with information that Honabach was lying about some of his testimony.

On the stand, Honabach said he purchased the humpback trunk from Schaupeter, but in an interview with defense investigators Saturday, Schaupeter called that a "damn lie." He said the item he had sold was a small roller skates case, not an antique trunk capable of carrying a body. He also charged that he had informed a prosecution investigator that Honabach's statement was false and later that same investigator had given him ways to avoid coming to court to testify.

"For the grace of God that this individual called up the defense with pangs of conscience regarding the importance of this testimony, [or] it would've never been known to the defense," said lawyer John Momot, who termed the trunk testimony the "lynch pin of the case" against his client.

In the interview with defense investigators, Schaupeter said he was barely following the case and only recently learned of the importance of Honabach's testimony. He said his secretary was in a casino south of Las Vegas when an acquaintance mentioned hearing her boss's name on television. The secretary used Courttv.com to track down a story on Honabach's testimony and showed it to Schaupeter. He said he dreaded testifying in court, but decided he could not live with himself if he did not tell what he knew.

"We should have been told about this a long time ago," Momot said outside court.

Guymon defended the decision not to turn over the reports and said it appeared that Schaupter had drastically altered his story from the account he initially gave the district attorney's investigator.

"Quite honestly, I'm astounded by the information in this statement,"said Guymon, holding a transcript of the interview Schaupeter gave to the defense. He said it was "very, very different" than what he told a prosecution investigator a month ago.

In that account, according to the prosecutor, the antiques dealer said he sold many items to Honabach and the trunk could have been one of them. He also repeatedly said he did not want to testify and asked the investigator for a way to avoid it. His statement about the trunk, Guymon said, constituted incriminating evidence — not exculpatory evidence — and therefore, the prosecution had no duty to turn it over.

That explanation frustrated Bonaventure, who repeatedly calls on the two sides to work together to speed the molasses-paced trial.

"Why wouldn't you just be on the safe than sorry side," the judge sighed. "This issue would've never arisen."

He told the defense to have Schaupeter and his secretary ready to testify Tuesday when the defense presents its surrebuttal case.

Bonaventure sent the jury home early Monday to hear the legal arguments regarding Schaupeter and, the judge said, because the panel looked exhausted after hearing four hours of dry, repetitive testimony from yet another blood stain expert. Criminalist Toby Wolson, called by the prosecution to rebut the defense's rebuttal of the prosecution's criminalist, said stains on the walls of Rudin's bedroom were "consistent with a forceful impact into blood," such as a gunshot wound to the head.

As Amador performed a painfully slow and circular cross-examination which touched on Galileo, the slant of a six-degree angle and Wolson's brief career selling shoes, many jurors looked bored and annoyed. One female in the front row rolled her eyes at Amador's questioned and pointedly turned her body away from the witness stand as the lawyer grilled the expert. A male juror closed his eyes, rested his head against the courtroom wall and appeared to be trying very hard to fall asleep.

The judge tried to buoy jurors, who initially told the panel to expect a month-long case, by telling them the case would finish this week. Closing arguments are expected on Wednesday.