Lawyers for a Florida drug kingpin and his ex-girlfriend argued Tuesday they were unfairly tried with two men accused of killing a couple and their young sons.
All four were convicted last year. Danny Varela received a life sentence and Liana Lee Lopez 15 years while the two triggermen are on death row.
A three-judge federal appeals panel in Miami postponed a decision, the Palm Beach Post reported.
Gregg Lerman, Lopez's lawyer, argued that she was a minor player in the drug gang.
"I think for anybody, let alone my client, to go to trial with people charged with killing people -- especially with killing two little kids -- is prejudicial," Lerman said.
Jose Luis Escobedo, his wife, Yessica, and their sons, Luis Julian, 4, and Luis Damian, 3, were shot dead on the Florida Turnpike in 2006. Prosecutors said Varela ordered the killings because Escobedo, who had moved to South Florida from Texas to work for him, owed him money.
Robert Gershman, Varela's lawyer, said after the hearing he is not optimistic about his client's chance of success. The judges asked him why, if his client ordered Escobedo's murder, he should be
tried separately from the killers.