With 9,000 potential jurors scheduled to start arriving at the Arapahoe County courthouse in less than two weeks, the defense in the Aurora movie theater shooting case has asked again to postpone the trial.
Citing more than 1,600 pages of new documents and six new audio and video discs turned over by the prosecution in the past month, defense attorneys argue in that they do not have enough time to prepare.
Jury selection is scheduled to start Jan. 20. Opening statements aren’t expected in the trial until late May or early June, but the defense argues that it will be too busy picking a jury during the intervening months to assess the new information.
“The defense was already behind on preparing to confront the information it had, let alone preparing to confront the additional information and witnesses it recently received notice of,” defense attorneys wrote in the motion.
During the 2½ years the case has been pending, lawyers for James Holmes have asked to delay the trial. If Judge Carlos Samour grants the delay, it would be the sixth time a trial date has been scheduled in the case — although not every postponement has occurred because of a defense request.
But Samour has appeared increasingly impatient to get the trial underway.
In denying a postponement last month, Samour that the state public defender’s office, which is representing Holmes, “has devoted seemingly unlimited resources and manpower to this case.”
Defense attorneys responded in Wednesday’s motion that Holmes’ attorneys also are working on other cases or have other duties.
John Ingold: 303-954-1068, jingold@denverpost.com or twitter.com/johningold
