DENVER – The trial in the Colorado theater shootings was delayed again Wednesday because the second sanity evaluation of defendant James Holmes will take more time than expected.

The trial had been scheduled to start with jury selection on Oct. 14. Arapahoe County District Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. didn’t immediately set a new date.

A report on the evaluation had been due Aug. 15, but the state mental hospital said it would need until Oct. 15, one day after jury selection was to begin.

Samour said he had no choice but to grant the extension.

Holmes pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to charges of killing 12 people and injuring 70 in the July 20, 2012, attack in the Denver suburb of Aurora. More than 400 people were watching a midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises” at the time.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

It is the second time in a year the trial date has been pushed back. Jury selection was scheduled to start in February, but that was delayed after prosecutors asked for the second sanity evaluation.

A sanity evaluation by the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo is mandatory under state law for anyone who pleads insanity.

The first evaluation was done last year. The key finding – whether Holmes was insane at the time of the shootings – hasn’t been made public, but prosecutors objected to the report, saying the doctor who conducted it was biased.

After a hearing that was closed to the public and the news media, Samour ruled the first evaluation was inadequate and ordered the new one.

Under Colorado law, the trial jury will determine whether Holmes was legally insane, defined as unable to tell right from wrong because of a mental disease or defect. The state hospital’s sanity evaluation will be a pivotal piece of evidence in that decision, but it isn’t clear whether both examinations will be introduced.

Holmes’ lawyers have acknowledged he was the shooter but say he was in the grips of a psychotic episode.