VIDALIA — The Ferriday teen convicted of three murders earlier this year wants a new trial, but one of the candidates for district attorney said the timing of the request is political.

In a motion filed by his attorney, Connor Wood requested a new trial and asked for the recusal of Judge Leo Boothe, who oversaw the teen’s triple-murder trial in April and sentenced Wood to three consecutive life prison terms in May.

Wood’s attorney is claiming the judge may have been biased, based on a working relationship with the lead prosecutor.

But former district attorney Brad Burget, who prosecuted the case, said he does not think the request is valid and that the timing is little more than an attempt to derail his campaign for district attorney.

“A request for a new trial has to be filed before the sentencing, which would make this request four months delinquent,” he said. “This is just politics as usual — why else do you think they would wait until now to file this request?”

In the request for the new trial, Wood’s attorney states that Boothe was represented in a civil case by the law firm Smith, Taliferro and Purvis. Burget is a partner in the firm.

Because of that, the request alleges the two had a working relationship and the proceedings leading up to and following the Wood trial were “defective and prejudicial, and have resulted in the denial of the defendant due process.”

The apparent working relationship between the judge and the prosecutor has an “appearance of impropriety,” something judges are instructed to avoid under the law, the request said.

While Burget is a partner in the firm, he said he has never personally represented Boothe, and while he has recused himself in every civil case he had before the judge, it was because Boothe was a partner at Smith, Taliferro and Purvis before he was elected to the bench.

In the request, it was stated that the defense did not know about the relationship prior to preparing for an appeal, and that they “had no reasonable means of knowing of the relationship until it was discovered.”

Burget said he had been working at the firm for three years before the trial.

The hearing to determine if a new trial is in order and if Boothe should be recused from it is set for Oct. 15.

Wood, now 17, was convicted of second-degree murder in connection with the deaths of his parents, John and Geraldine Wood, and a teenage neighbor, Matthew Whittington.

At least 24 bullets were fired from three guns during the course of the killings.