RENO, Nev. (AP) - Lawyers said Monday that the former Reno pawnshop owner who pleaded guilty to murdering his wife and shooting a judge handling their divorce deserves a new trial because his former lawyers failed to explain defense strategies that might have gotten him a better plea deal.

Defense attorney Mark Topel told the Nevada Supreme Court that the trial judge - Douglas Herndon of Clark County - was wrong to refuse to allow Darren Mack to withdraw his guilty pleas to charges of first-degree and attempted murder in the case.

Mack is serving 36 years to life in prison for the June 2006 killing of Charla Mack and the sniper-style shooting of Washoe County Family Court Judge Chuck Weller.

Topel said Mack's former lawyers did not explore with Mack the possibility of him admitting to second-degree murder or manslaughter given evidence that his wife abused him in the past and that Mack claimed he was acting in self defense.

Special prosecutor Christopher Lalli said the defense team had an "extraordinarily high" burden of proof to reverse the matter after Herndon already determined that the plea was valid.

Mack "entered knowing and intelligent and voluntary pleas to murder in the first degree and attempted murder," said Lalli, a deputy district attorney from Clark County.

Topel said the lawyers who earlier represented Mack - including David Chesnoff of Las Vegas and Scott Freeman of Reno - were "well known and respected counsel, but that doesn't mean they could not and did not make a mistake."

Topel said that Mack answered affirmatively when filling out a plea bargain form that indicated he discussed with his attorney "any possible defenses, defense strategies or circumstances that might be in my favor." But he said the question should have been asked of the lawyers themselves because they are the experts.

"You don't ask a heart patient if his surgery was done correctly. He doesn't know. You have to ask the doctor," Topel said.

Topel said the killing stemmed from a conflict in the estranged couple's relationship in which Charla had a history of violence toward her husband. He said Weller himself indicated that Mack had told him he was in physical fear of his wife and that another witness saw her attack Mack during a cruise.

In addition, he said a pathologist testified that the evidence was inconclusive as to whether Charla's wounds were defensive or aggressive in nature.

All of that raised the question whether the killing of Charla happened in the "heat of passion," rather than being premeditated, as was required to be proven for first-degree murder, Topel said.

At a prior hearing where Herndon refused a motion to rescind his plea in 2008, Mack said he believed Chesnoff and Scott Freeman of Reno "psychologically raped" him into taking a deal he didn't understand.

Freeman said at an earlier hearing that Chesnoff told Mack "at least five times, if he didn't want to take the deal, he didn't have to."