CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – A key figure in the Seth Bader murder case has been deported to his native Italy after serving five years in prison.

Bader, a lawyer, was convicted in 1998 of murder and murder conspiracy in the 1996 shooting death of his ex-wife, Vicki. Sandro Stuto, 28, testified against Bader after pleading guilty to helping dispose of Vicki Bader’s body and ditching her car.

Bader is fighting his conviction in federal court after losing in the state Supreme Court last year. In court papers, he claims Stuto can provide key testimony about his innocence and that his deportation was part of a conspiracy by prosecutors.

Prosecutors deny it, saying the deportation was routinely handled by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. Federal law requires that immigrants who commit certain crimes be deported after serving their sentences.

“He was deported in the ordinary course; the state had nothing to do with that,” said Senior Assistant Attorney General Will Delker.

“I didn’t even know it happened until we were notified by the INS,” Delker added.

Bader was sentenced to life in prison without parole for murdering his ex-wife during a custody dispute over their son Sam, then 3.

Bader tried to pin the murder on his former fiancee, Mary Jean Martin, of Cambridge, Mass.; his adopted son, Joseph, who was 14 at the time; and Stuto, who was 25 at the time and lived in Everett, Mass.

Joseph Bader and Stuto both pleaded guilty to their roles in the crime in plea bargains. Stuto got five to 10 years for hindering apprehension; Joseph Bader was put in foster care and placed on probation.

Stuto, a former boyfriend of Martin, said Bader paid him $6,000 to get rid of Vicki Bader’s car. He also said that the day of the murder, Bader coerced him into acting as backup gunman in case Bader failed to kill her. However, he testified that Bader filed the fatal shot.

Joseph Bader and Stuto also told authorities that Bader masterminded a harassment campaign against Vicki Bader in the months before her death. They said he got the others to shoot out her windows, put a pipe bomb in her mailbox and roast her pet parakeets in her oven.

In his federal appeal, Bader says authorities have failed to interview a prisoner who said he heard Stuto boast that Bader was framed. Last year, the state Supreme Court said Bader made similar claims during his initial trial, so there was no basis for a new trial.

Bader’s appeals have not named the inmate, but claim he is willing to testify that Stuto told him Martin and Joseph Bader were responsible for the murder.

In a recent federal court appearance, Bader’s attorney, Michael Cormier, said he was optimistic Bader would get a new trial.

“I think it’s going to be shockingly clear that Mr. Bader was convicted on a lot of perjured testimony,” Cormier said.

AP-ES-05-12-03 1219EDT