HOUSTON -- Note: The following story is a verbatim transcript of an Investigators story that aired on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2008, on KPRC Local 2 at 10 p.m.

Local 2 Investigates looks into claims a prosecutor helped make up key evidence in a murder case.

A Texas man sits in prison tonight. He's already served a decade into a 99-year sentence. Now, new court papers claim fabricated testimony from a convicted criminal in that case was in part orchestrated by a small-town district attorney.

Local 2 investigative reporter Stephen Dean has the evidence raising new questions tonight.

"Did you kill your girlfriend?" Local 2 Investigates asked convicted murderer Daniel Meehan.

"No sir, I did not," Meehan responded.

Meehan's denial is quick and consistent as he sits inside the Terrell Prison unit in Brazoria County.

He was sentenced to 99 years in prison back in 1998. A decade after a jury in Orange, Texas, sent him to prison, Meehan says there is new evidence small town prosecutors set him up. A key witness has recanted his testimony.

The murder scene was Spot 39 inside a trailer park in Pinehurst, near Orange. Meehan's girlfriend, Selma Pieruccini, was shot dead inside Meehan's trailer with his gun. Meehan called 911 saying he was drunk and passed out and woke up to the gunshot. Meehan told 911 operators he assumed it was suicide.

Pinehurst police and Orange County prosecutors called it cold-blooded murder. They charged Meehan with murder, saying he killed her when she decided to move out.

Pieruccini was shot in the back, but there was no evidence of gunpowder on Meehan's hands. Friends said the couple fought about Pieruccini moving out, but Meehan said he had helped her find a new place.

Despite the strong circumstantial evidence he was the killer, Meehan maintained he did not do it. In 1998, he pled not guilty and the case went to trial inside an Orange County courtroom.

"About that time, their star witness came along that kind of saved the day for them is what it seemed like," said Meehan. "Because he seemed to be their case."

He was Gary Harris -- a fellow inmate inside the Orange County jail.

When District Attorney John Kimbrough called Harris to the stand, Harris testified Meehan had confessed to the murder behind bars -- describing how he shot his girlfriend point-blank, saying, "I can't have her, no one can."

"When he looked at the jury and said that statement, you know, it blew me away," Meehan said. "It really did. I was 31 years old and I was thinking, 'My life is over.'"

The jury convicted Meehan after deliberating less than half an hour.

Ten years later, inside a newly filed criminal appeal, Harris says his testimony was all a lie. Meehan believes it should change the decision that put him in prison for the rest of his life.

"All these years I've explained to them that one day the truth is going to come out and there's going to be some surprised people," said Meehan. "That's what I hope this is."

"He (Kimbrough) said you do this for us and we will help you," Harris said on a recorded phone call last year from jail included in the court documents. "They had a case, but it was very weak. He said he need a conviction and he needed it bad."

Harris has been a career criminal before and after his testimony 10 years go.

Now, Harris says not only did he lie about Meehan's murder confession, Harris describes specific meetings with Kimbrough and his investigators that helped fabricate his testimony.

"He elaborated that he was new in his career as district attorney and this would make him look real good in everyone's eyes," Harris said on the recorded call. "It was his first murder trial and he wanted a conviction."

Harris claims Kimbrough's team met with him in the DA's office for two hours and spelled out specific details of the crime. Harris claims they even told him exactly what to say.

"They said to make it even sweeter, that I want you to put in one last detail. He said, 'I want you to look dead at the jury and tell them that Danny told you, if he couldn't have her, then nobody else could have her,'" he said.

Court papers show three of Harris' relatives say Harris also told them about making up the jailhouse confession.

Records show Harris was released from jail days after his testimony. The charges against him were dismissed.

"When the prosecutor put Gary Harris on the stand, he said you can't take a check from this guy, but you can believe what he's saying here today," Meehan said. "I'm curious what John Kimbrough would say now."

Kimbrough initially told us the evidence was strong enough even without Harris' jailhouse testimony. However, Kimbrough later denied repeated requests from Local 2 Investigates for an interview.

Local 2 legal analyst Brian Wice says Harris' testimony itself does bring up serious questions.

"My take in almost three decades of practicing criminal defense law is that you see jail house snitches by and large when the prosecution has to throw a 'Hail Mary', when they have a borderline case," Wice said.

The remaining question is how did that testimony affect the jury?

Local 2 Investigates tracked down the jury foreman. He told us he believed the case was pretty cut and dry, and he would have convicted anyway.

It still leaves the question -- did prosecutors heap on that testimony to secure a conviction at any cost?

"I believe if the players in the first trial proceedings in my case would recuse themselves and a fresh set of eyes would look at this for what it is, I believe I have a very good chance of having this conviction overturned," Meehan said.

Despite the recanted testimony, Wice and other legal experts we spoke with say the chances of a court ordering a new trial is slim.

They all say it usually take new physical evidence like DNA or fingerprints to be convincing enough to force a new hearing.

Meehan's appeal has been denied by Kimbrough's office and the trial judge in his original case. Meehan's appeal is now sitting with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

All of the new research and phone interviews for his appeal were conducted by Meehan's uncle.

Don Meehan had not seen his nephew in decades, but took on his case after corresponding with Daniel Meehan in prison.