Rudolph Holton, an admitted drug addict and burglar, was convicted of the crime and sent to death row in 1986.

But Holton's attorneys have claimed in court papers that the evidence points not to Holton, but to a man the victim, Katrina Graddy, accused of raping her shortly before she was killed, David Pearson.

Tampa homicide investigators took a saliva sample from Pearson on Wednesday for DNA testing, Assistant State Attorney Wayne Chalu said, and prosecutors questioned Pearson on Thursday.

It will be several weeks before the test results are back, and Chalu would not discuss what Pearson said.

Assistant State Attorney Pam Bondi, however, said prosecutors still believe Holton is the killer. She said Pearson's saliva was taken only to refute the allegations of Holton's attorneys.

Defense attorney Linda McDermott said the latest efforts are ``too little too late'' because her client has been in prison for so long.

``If they are reopening the case, then my client should not be sitting in jail,'' McDermott said.

McDermott and fellow defense attorney Martin McClain have filed several motions in recent months attacking Holton's conviction and sentence.

The conviction was based largely on the testimony of a handful of witnesses who said they saw Holton with the 17-year-old victim the night she died. The state's star witness was a jailhouse snitch who said Holton confessed.

But most of those witnesses now say that they lied.

In addition, a police report Graddy filed accusing Pearson of raping her shortly before her murder surfaced recently. The report was not produced at Holton's original trial, though it's not clear why. But Graddy refused to press charges, and Pearson was never charged with rape.

Hillsborough Judge Daniel Perry ordered a new sentencing hearing for Holton, and is considering whether to grant a new trial. Perry holds another hearing in the case this afternoon.