After spending $500,000 on his two murder trials, Ryan Widmer is broke, his lawyers say, and they want nearly $50,000 in public funds for experts to testify next month as he goes on trial a third time for the 2008 bathtub-drowning of his 24-year-old wife, Sarah.

The request puts the Warren County case at yet another crucial juncture, experts say.

Denying the request likely would force the trial to be postponed and could make any guilty verdict vulnerable to being thrown out on appeal, said Mike Allen, a former Hamilton County prosecutor and current defense lawyer who has been closely following the case.