The 2007 "cold case" murder conviction of Jenaro Torres has been set aside by the state Intermediate Court of Appeals.

Torres, 60, was convicted of murdering Pearl Harbor base cashier Ruben Gallegos in 1992.

The victim's body was never found and Torres was originally convicted of robbing Gallegos of $80,000, but wasn't charged with murder until the state attorney general's cold case unit looked at new evidence and obtained a homicide indictment in 2005.

It was the first "cold case" brought to trial by the unit.

But the appellate court, in a 56-page decision written by Chief Judge Craig Nakamura, yesterday threw out the conviction and ordered a new trial, finding that the trial court should not have allowed testimony from a prosecution witness about the murder weapon.

"We are disappointed in the decision," Attorney General Mark Bennett said yesterday. "We are studying it and have not yet decided whether to seek a review by the Hawai'i Supreme Court."

Officials of the Hawai'i Public Defender's Office, which represents Torres, could not be reached for comment.

The appellate court said Circuit Judge Michael Town, who presided over the murder trial, erred when he allowed a prosecution witness to testify that Torres' gun, found in his car the same day that Gallegos was allegedly robbed and killed, had been recently fired.

The testimony was "particularly significant because it provided a direct link between the firing of the gun and Gallegos' murder," the appellate decision said.

The witness was not qualified as an expert in the field, the court said.

The decision rejected other grounds for appeal raised by the defendant, however, upholding the validity of testimony from a witness who said Torres made incriminating statements about his involvement in the crime in 1997.

Town sentenced Torres to serve between 15 years and life in prison for the murder.

He had earlier served two years in federal prison for the robbery conviction but was free and living in California when the cold case indictment was returned in 2005.