SANTA CRUZ, California (AP) -- The final resting place of a soldier killed in Iraq is now in the hands of a judge who said he would have preferred the bitterly divided family could have resolved the matter without him. "I wish I had the power to reconcile this family, but I don't," Judge Robert Yonts said. "However, I have the power to decide this case, and I will." Yonts made an unusual -- and futile -- plea midway through the five-day trial for the family to try to reach a compromise. He heard closing arguments Wednesday in Santa Cruz County Superior Court by attorneys representing the divorced parents of Army Staff Sgt. Jason Hendrix. Hendrix, 28, was killed by a roadside bomb near the Iraqi city of Ramadi on February 16 and buried last month -- against his mother's wishes -- in a plot next to his paternal grandfather in Oklahoma. His father Russell Hendrix argued that his son's body should stay where it is. "To disturb his repose would be an unjust desecration of his remains and of his service to this country," said attorney Omar James. But Hendrix's mother, Renee Amick of Watsonville, California, says her son asked to be buried there during a telephone conversation before he was deployed to Iraq. Standing behind a stoic Amick, her lawyer rested his hands on her shoulders and faced the judge. "She has fought for her son, to keep a promise to him," said attorney Michael Barsi. If Renee Amick wins the case, her attorney said she wants to disinter his remains, ship them to California and bury him there. If this happens, it will be his body's third journey across the country. The Army initially sent Hendrix's body to Watsonville. But the body was later shipped to Oklahoma after Russell Hendrix appealed to an Oklahoma probate court. The case has highlighted little-known Defense Department rules, which have come under criticism from several federal lawmakers. If a slain soldier is unmarried and has no children -- which was the case with Hendrix -- the military grants custody to next of kin based on seniority. Russell Hendrix is 48 and Amick is 45. Jason Hendrix grew up in Watsonville with his mother but finished high school living with his father in Oklahoma. Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.