(WSBT) He was convicted in July of killing his father, step-mother, and two young stepsisters. Wednesday Jeff Pelley’s lawyer asked for a new trial -- claiming new evidence may have swayed the jury to acquit him.

A woman who now lives in West Virginia came forward in September, saying she had overheard a group of teenagers in South Bend talking just before the 1989 murders about how a pastor was going to be killed.

Two weeks later Pelley’s father, a Lakeville minister, was found shot to death along with his wife and two step-daughters. Prosecutors say Pelley killed them before leaving for his high school prom, upset over his father's prom-weekend rules.

A jury deliberated for 30 hours before finding him guilty on all counts in July. But Pelley’s lawyer, Andre Gammage, says the evidence was all circumstantial -- and this new evidence may have swayed the jury that someone else could have committed the murders.

“That is a question for the jury to determine and the jury did not get an opportunity to hear the information that we recently submitted,” Gammage told WSBT News. “And we believe that it’s appropriate for them to hear that information and let them make the decision.”

The woman who came forward in September says she originally told police about what she heard in the weeks after the murders.

But prosecutors say they have no record of that -- and they say this woman isn’t credible. Pelley’s defense says that should be up to a jury to decide.

The judge took today’s request into consideration and will make a written decision in the next few weeks.