A Fond du Lac County judge has denied a motion that would allow testing of bone fragments found in a barrel allegedly used to burn a Waukesha woman's body for more than 10 hours.

Circuit Court Judge Richard Nuss denied District Attorney Dan Kaminsky's motion at a hearing Friday for Nancy J. Pinno, 53, of Fond du Lac, citing the request did not meet a 45-day notice needed in a trial scheduled for Dec. 14 and that the testing should have been considered sooner.

Nuss also denied Kaminsky's request to dismiss the case so Pinno could be charged again, which would allow more time for testing.

Brandon J. Mueller, 36, of Brookfield, is accused of strangling Renee M. Redmer, 28, in January inside Pinno's Fond du Lac apartment, putting the body in a cooler and placing the cooler in a garage at the Courtyard Apartments complex on Berger Parkway, according to the criminal complaint.

Pinno, who is Mueller's mother, is charged with party to the crime of mutilating a corpse and resisting or obstructing an officer for allegedly helping Mueller take the body to the home of Donald Worth, 48, of W6379 Kinker Road, where Mueller and Worth burned the body and then dumped the ashes into Lake Winnebago.

Kaminsky said the Wisconsin State Crime Lab initially determined the few bone fragments found in the barrel were too badly burned for DNA testing.

However, forensic anthropologist Leslie Eisenberg completed testing and found additional fragments. Kaminsky said he first found out Wednesday that the FBI Crime Lab could perform mitochondrial testing on that evidence.

"The judge is not the one who gets to decide which evidence the prosecutor thinks is appropriate to convince the jury," Kaminsky said. "That's improper for the judge to make comments that he thinks we have sufficient other evidence and we should disregard the possible DNA evidence and then present to the jury only a partial case because, in his opinion, he wants to preserve a speedy trial."

While the potentially key evidence might still be used for Mueller and Worth, whose trials have yet to be scheduled, Kaminsky said how much Pinno's jury will know about the burn barrel will be determined before trial.

The state has evidence that includes signed confessions from Pinno and Worth; and blood from Redmer found on a pillow inside Pinno's apartment; and a key witness is Mueller's friend, Terry Wasserman, who contacted the Waukesha Police Department about the alleged murder.

But Kaminsky said he wants to present all the evidence when heading to trial.

"Ultimately, we are trying to get to the truth," Kaminsky said.