SAN DIEGO — Until recently, a few specks of blood on a red sweatshirt were the only bits of publicly released evidence linking a mentally ill drifter to the 1998 murder of 12-year-old Stephanie Crowe. This week, as prosecutors prepared to argue to a judge that they have enough evidence to try Richard Raymond Tuite for the murder, a few other potential links came to light.

In court documents, prosecutors revealed that investigators initially overlooked other evidence pointing to Tuite, now 34, as the man who snuck into Stephanie's Escondido, Calif., home and stabbed her while five family members slept down the hall.

A police photograph of items removed from Tuite's pockets shows that when he was questioned the day of the murder, Tuite was carrying a cough drop wrapper, matchbox and candy bar wrapper that resembled items found in the Crowe home. Although the items were returned to Tuite and are long gone, Stephanie's mother, Cheryl Crowe, told reporters that the items were consistent with items Tuite could have found out in the open in her home.

Escondido police initially sought out Tuite, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, because neighbors reported that he was knocking on doors in the Crowes' neighborhood around the time Stephanie was murdered. They seized Tuite's soiled red turtleneck within hours of finding Stephanie's body on the floor of her bedroom on Jan. 21, 1998, but the blood on the right sleeve was overlooked.

Police eventually focused their attention on Stephanie's brother Michael, then 14, and two of his friends, Joshua Treadway and Aaron Houser. The three were charged with killing Stephanie based on incriminating statements since thrown out of court.

Charges against the teens were dismissed — but not irreversibly if new evidence surfaces — after tests sought by Treadway's lawyer found the specks of Stephanie's blood on Tuite's shirt.

In court Wednesday, Tuite's lawyer, Brad Patton sought unsuccessfully to have Superior Court Judge Gale Kaneshiro order lawyers for the teens to turn over documents and evidence that could help his client.

Patton conceded that he is on a bit of a "fishing expedition," but noted that due process trumps any rights by the original suspects to keep any evidence that might cast suspicion on them or clear Tuite.

Kaneshiro declined to rule on Pattons' request, saying the decision was one for the trial judge to make.

Tuite, who looked dramatically different from the wild-eyed street person depicted in police photos, wore a white shirt that was too big for him and a dark tie. He looked straight ahead while in court and never looked at his lawyers, the judge or gallery. His mother and sister, who did not give their names, left the courthouse without speaking to reporters.

Cheryl Crowe said it was difficult to hear references in court to the stabbing death of the second of her three children. Don McInnes, an attorney for Aaron Houser apologized for describing the assault in detail while explaining why he never turned over to police until recently a "Best Defense" brand knife that Houser's brother, Adam, gave McInnes in 1998.

Police initially believed a duplicate of the knife, which was found under Joshua Treadway's bed, was the murder weapon. The knife is just another in a long line of controversies surrounding an investigation that many here believe was botched by an initial rush to judgment by police.

Cheryl Crowe told reporters that she is confident the system will bring justice to Stephanie's killer.

The probable cause hearing, which begins Thursday morning, is expected to last about a week.