ATLANTA (AP) — A Superior Court judge said Monday accused courthouse shooter Brian Nichols' murder trial will resume July 10.

The trial was suspended during jury selection in October due to problems funding Nichols' defense.

Those problems have not been completely resolved, but Judge James Bodiford has sought to move the case along after being appointed last month to replace the previous presiding judge.

Prosecutors asked at a hearing Monday that the trial resume June 16. The defense wanted a Sept. 8 date.

"This case needs a start date, a real start date," Bodiford said after making his decision.

The trial over the March 11, 2005, shooting spree in which a judge and three others were killed is expected to last up to six months, though Bodiford said he is hoping to finish the trial by Christmas.

He plans to conduct the trial 9½ hours each day and hold court on Saturdays. Defense lawyer Henderson Hill objected to the new trial date, but Bodiford said he has no plans to change his mind.

"Now you want to come back and negotiate, and the answer is, 'No,'" Bodiford told Hill.

Bodiford also said he is considering a defense motion to move the trial from the Fulton County Courthouse complex, where the shootings started, to another courthouse in the county. Prosecutors and defense lawyers suggested the federal courthouse a few blocks away as an alternate site.

It was not clear if federal courthouse officials were willing to hold Nichols' state trial there. They have rebuffed past efforts to hold the trial there.

Nichols' defense team has been seeking for more than a year to move the trial to another location in the county because the Fulton County Courthouse complex is a crime scene.

The defense has not sought a change of venue, which would move the trial outside the county. That's because they want a Fulton County jury to hear the case.

The previous judge overseeing Nichols' murder case had denied the defense request to move the trial elsewhere in the county because no other courthouse was suitable for the trial or was willing to host the trial.

Now that there is a new judge hearing the case, the defense has renewed its request to change the trial location.

Another one of Nichols' attorneys, Robert McGlasson, told Bodiford at Monday's hearing that federal courthouse officials previously cited a court renovation project as the reason that courthouse could not handle Nichols' trial.

Now that the project has been completed, the federal courthouse may be suitable to handle the trial, McGlasson said.

Assistant District Attorney Christopher Quinn said the prosecution does not object to moving the trial to the federal courthouse if it is available.

Bodiford said he would check with federal officials.

Tuesday is the three-year anniversary of the shooting spree in which a judge, court reporter and sheriff's deputy were killed at the Fulton County Courthouse and a federal agent was killed a few miles away that night.

Nichols, who was on trial for rape at the time of the shooting spree, has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.