LOS ANGELES—A judge tentatively ruled Friday that a Japanese man does not have to be in a Los Angeles court for his attorney to argue for dismissal of charges that he had his wife murdered in the 1980s.

Kazuyoshi Miura, 60, is in custody in Saipan, a U.S. territory, where he was arrested in February on a warrant alleging he had his wife, Kazumi, 28, shot during a visit to Los Angeles in 1981.

She died in Japan a year later, and in 1994 Miura was convicted of murder in that country. A Japanese high court later overturned the verdict. Los Angeles authorities, who first thought the Miuras were robbery victims, finally issued an arrest warrant for Kazuyoshi Miura in 1988 but weren't able to arrest him until he came to Saipan this year.

In March, defense attorney Mark Geragos filed motions to quash the arrest warrant and dismiss the felony complaint for extradition, but prosecutors contended the motions could not be argued unless his client was present.

Miura should not be allowed to "telephone in his defense," Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson said during a hearing Friday before Superior Court Judge Steven Van Sicklen.

The judge disagreed.

"It makes no sense to me to insist that the person be here when their presence isn't required," Van Sicklen said.

A written order on his decision was expected next week.

Geragos argues in his motion for dismissal of the case that trying Miura for murder in Los Angeles after he was

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tried in Japan would violate double-jeopardy rules.

"Obviously, it's the same case. That's why you're all here," he said after the hearing, referring to dozens of Japanese journalists who attend each hearing in the matter.

Most states prohibit trying someone twice for the same crime. In 2004, the state Legislature passed a law to allow someone who was tried in another country to stand trial again in California. Geragos contends changes in the law don't apply because they came after Miura's conviction was overturned in Japan.

Van Sicklen said he did not have enough information to rule on Geragos' motion and asked him to provide copies of court documents from the Japanese trial.

"I don't know what they did in Japan," Van Sicklen said. "You have not given this court enough notice because I don't know if he has been in jeopardy, except from the media."

Geragos said it would take several weeks to deliver documentation of Miura's Japanese trial, because thousands of legal documents from three different courts need to be shipped from Japan and translated.

District attorney's spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said prosecutors would consider whether to ask an appeals court to weigh in on whether Miura should have to be present for the next hearing, set for June 16.

Geragos said he would arrange to have Miura appear by closed-circuit television from a jail in Saipan.