BOULDER, Colo. -- The Boulder County district attorney has been cleared to use Twitter to post updates during an upcoming murder trial.

District Attorney Stan Garnett has permission to use the social networking site during this month's murder trial of a man accused of killing his ex-wife. The man's lawyer asked a judge in pretrial motions to extend the court's ban on electronic devices to the prosecutor himself.

But District Judge James Klein disagreed, saying the defense's worry that Garnett would use Twitter to pack the courtroom was unfounded. The prosecutor also used Twitter during a murder trial last month, telling his Twitter followers that closing arguments were coming up and that the victim's family appeared to be hanging in there.

Garnett tweets under the username @dagarnett. He had only 11 followers on Thursday, but after the Daily Camera reported the story, the number of his followers jumped to more than 90 by Friday morning.

Kevin Elmarr, 52, is charged with killing his ex-wife, Carol Murphy, in 1987 and leaving her body in the foothills outside Boulder. Prosecutors said he was linked to the crime via DNA two years ago.