LEBANON, Mo. (AP) -- A man accused of killing his wife and encasing her body in concrete wants a judge to prohibit a statement he made to police from being used as evidence against him at his trial. Horst Sabla faces charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of his wife, Sharon, whose remains were found by deer hunters November 2008. Law enforcement officers testified this past week that they heard Sabla admit on Dec. 10, 2008, that he shot his wife in the back of the head, stuffed her body into a box, filled it with lime and concrete and dumped it on the side of a Laclede County road. But Sabla's attorney, Stacy Leigh Patterson, has asked a judge to suppress the statement on claims that it was coerced and provided in violation of his right to have an attorney present. "During the time Mr. Sabla was being handcuffed and placed into the patrol vehicle, he asserts that he stated he needed or wanted an attorney," Patterson wrote in the motion. Less than 3 minutes of the conversation on the ride to the Laclede County Sheriff's Office was recorded, Patterson claims. Sabla's attorney claims that law officers should have stopped interviewing Sabla immediately, and that subsequent statements he made in interrogations also should not be allowed as evidence in court. Laclede County Prosecutor Angie Hemphill Wright said a Missouri State Highway Patrol officer and a Laclede County sheriff's detective both have denied that Sabla asked for an attorney. Online court records show that Judge Kenneth Hayden has taken the request to suppress Sabla's statement under consideration. A jury trial for Sabla was scheduled to begin Nov. 30 in Camden County. But on Friday, a judge delayed that until April 5 at the request of Sabla's attorney. (Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
