SKOWHEGAN (AP) – A judge has granted a defense motion seeking separate trials for a Canaan man charged with murdering his estranged wife and another woman.

Shannon Atwood has pleaded not guilty to killing both his wife, Shirley Moon Atwood, and his live-in girlfriend, Cheryl Murdoch. Murdoch’s body was found in August 2006 in some woods near Atwood’s mobile home, but Moon Atwood’s body has never been found.

The decision on separate trials was released Monday by Justice Nancy Mills.

On Friday, defense attorney Arnold Clark had argued that by trying the two cases together, prosecutors were essentially elevating a weak case without a victim’s body by linking it with a case in which a body has been found.

Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson argued that the cases were linked and that the same evidence would be aired twice at separate trials.

AP-ES-11-06-07 0611EST