A defense attorney wants a judge to hold a hearing to determine whether the federal government deliberately deleted video footage of the area around Jeffrey Epstein's cell on the day he survived an apparent suicide attempt inside a New York jail.
The attorney for Epstein's former cellmate filed a motion late Monday saying the missing footage would show Nicholas Tartaglione tried to help Epstein on July 23 when guards found the wealthy financier with bruises on his neck.
The attorney says the video could convince a federal jury that Tartaglione does not deserve the death penalty in his case.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan told a judge last week that jail officials preserved video of the wrong cell, and a backup system also failed to capture footage because of technical issues.
The footage from the Metropolitan Correctional Center was recorded on July 23. Epstein later hanged himself Aug. 10.
Tartaglione, a former police officer, is charged in what prosecutors have described as the "gangland-style" killings of four men who disappeared during a cocaine-related dispute, according to the AP.