Defense lawyers are asking a Colorado judge to delay the trial in the 2012 Colorado movie theater mass shooting yet again.

Attorneys representing James Holmes, the man accused of fatally killing 12 movie goers at an Aurora theater showing the "Dark Knight" on July 20, 2012, say they need more time to prepare due to medical emergencies involving two members of their team.

Although the trial has already been postponed five times, the defense said at a hearing on Monday that an attorney and an investigator are suffering from medical problems, which has complicated their review of the evidence.

"We're trying to jam all this work into a small amount of time at the end of this proceeding that has lasted more than two years," defense attorney Daniel King told Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr., according to the Washington Post.

Last week, the defense issued court filings asking for a two-to-three month delay to review over 85,000 pages of documents, 366 CDs and 282 DVDs of evidence.

King also argued on Monday that expert witnesses are still evaluating the material, which includes 22 hours of interviews with Holmes and 5,000 pages of documents from the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo, where the interviews were held, reports 9 News.

However, prosecutors and victims of the shooting are demanding the trial begin on Jan. 20 as scheduled, without any further delay.

"The victims have been forced to continually relive the alleged crimes and the aftermath associated with this crime each and every time another a court date has been set in this case," District Attorney George Brauchler wrote in a filing made public Monday. "It is time for the court to allow the case to move forward so that the victims and witnesses may move on with the rest (of their) lives."

The judge is expected to decide whether or not to delay the trial again in the next few days.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, but Holmes pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the attack that killed a dozen people and injured 70 others.

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