Robert L. Moore, center, talks to his attorney, Lou DeFabio, left, Tuesday after Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Maureen Sweeney announced that she would not permit “prior acts” evidence to be presented the next time Moore goes on trial. (Photo by Ed Runyan)

YOUNGSTOWN — If the oft-delayed Robert L. Moore murder trial goes to trial again, the prosecution will not have a type of evidence the first prosecution team had in 2022.

Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Maureen Sweeney held a hearing Tuesday to hear oral arguments for whether evidence sometimes called “prior acts” that were allowed in the first trial should be allowed the next time. She ruled from the bench at the end of the hearing that she will not allow “prior acts” evidence the next time.

Moore, 55 of Alliance, is charged with murder in the June 2009 disappearance and presumed murder of Glenna J. White, 16, of Smith Township. Her body was never found. Moore went on trial in 2022, with the jury finding Moore not guilty of aggravated murder but unable to decide on murder.

Since then, Mahoning County prosecutors have tried numerous times to try Moore again, but numerous issues have arisen to cause the trial to be postponed. Moore was indicted in the case in 2021 after a detective with the Portage County Sheriff’s Office reopened it after obtaining information on the White case while investigating a Portage County case.

Moore has been in the Mahoning County jail since December 2021.

White disappeared from a home on Alden Avenue in Smith Township, near Alliance, on June 2, 2009, after leaving with Moore, who returned about an hour later without White, according to earlier filings in the case. The case went cold for many years before the Portage County detective restarted it.

Moore’s attorney in 2022, Max Haupt of Alliance, argued that information related to Moore that dated back decades earlier should not be allowed to be presented at Moore’s trial. But Sweeney ruled that it was admissible.

Assistant Ohio Attorney General Dan Kasaris is now prosecuting the case after Mahoning County Prosecutor Lynn Maro sought a special prosecutor after she took office in January because of her potential conflict of interest. Officials have said that when Maro was a defense lawyer, she consulted with Moore’s family regarding the case. Lou DeFabio is Moore’s defense attorney now.

The case is set for trial Sept. 29.