Relatives of victims killed during a Fulton County Courthouse rampage nearly three years ago smiled Thursday after the new judge in the beleaguered case announced in court he is eager to start the trial.

"We're encouraged," Claudia Barnes, widow of slain Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes, said outside the courtroom. Candee Wilhelm, widow of slain federal customs agent David Wilhelm, nodded. Neither wanted to comment further.

John Spink/AJC (ENLARGE)

Brian Nichols was back in court on Thursday, facing a new judge in his murder trial, James Bodiford.

Photos: Nichols faces new judge Full Nichols coverage

The victims and their families also are eager to start the trial, which has been delayed five times over a lack of funding for the defense. Cobb County Superior Court Judge James Bodiford, who took over the high-profile death penalty case earlier this month, announced he is ready to move forward.

Nichols' lead attorney, Henderson Hill, told the new judge that his team, which has been given about $1.5 million, is out of money.

Bodiford said he will listen to defense arguments, but the former U.S. Marine made it clear: "There's no option not to try the case. I'm going to set a trial date."

Bodiford, who oversaw the high-profile cases of the Tri-State Crematory and antifreeze murderer Lynn Turner, set another hearing in the Nichols case for Tuesday at 8:25 a.m. — earlier than most Fulton County court hearings.

"I am ready to work full time on this case. This is my No. 1 priority," he told attorneys for both sides. "We're going to work hard."

Hill has blamed the Georgia Public Defender Standard's Council, a state agency that pays for the representation of poor and capital defendants, for not giving the defense enough money. Council officials, who have faced budget cuts by state lawmakers, are asking the judge to allow them to eliminate one attorney, North Carolina lawyer Jacob Sussman, from the four-member defense team to save on fees and travel expenses. The council is offering to lend one of its staff attorneys to the defense.

Hill is trying to block state lawmakers — and the public — from learning details about how the defense team has spent its money. Those expenses should be kept confidential until the trial is over, Hill has argued.

The judge will hear arguments on those issues Tuesday.

Bodiford also said he will reconsider the defense's rare motion to move the trial to another location in Fulton County — away from the courthouse complex, which is a crime scene. Nichols is charged with murder in the March 11, 2005 killings of Barnes, the judge's court reporter and a sheriff's sergeant at the courthouse and the fatal shooting of Wilhelm in Buckhead.

The initial trial judge, DeKalb County Senior Superior Court Judge Hilton Fuller, ruled that the case should go to trial at the courthouse because it had been impossible to find a location that was available and that the defense and prosecution could agree on.

Fuller removed himself from the case in January after a national magazine quoted him as saying about Nichols: "Everyone in the world knows he did it."

Nichols has pleaded not guilty, but his attorneys have announced plans to use a mental health defense, claiming that Nichols couldn't control his actions.

Court officials want to keep the trial in a county with MARTA transportation for jurors without access to cars. That would limit the options to DeKalb and Fulton counties.

Fulton court officials once thought the federal courthouse would be a natural alternative but federal judges refused, citing a construction project. Fuller also had asked his fellow jurists in DeKalb County, who refused, claiming all of their courtrooms were in use, according to their rejection letter.

Nichols' attorneys suggested the court-martial facility at Van Horn Hall at Fort McPherson, which is five miles from the courthouse on Pryor Street and near a MARTA bus stop and rail station. But defense attorneys said the base commander wouldn't allow it, pointing out that the Army post is in the process of closing.

Hill filed a 16-page memo Thursday to inform the new judge of key pending issues, including whether potential jurors can still be used for this case when they were initially subpoenaed more than a year ago.

Bodiford had said in court that the only time he remembers being this behind in a case is when he worked as a prosecutor and was ordered to jump in mid-trial after the initial prosecutor had an emergency.

"The jurors knew more than I did," Bodiford quipped.

Bodiford has spent much of February reading reams of documents in the case, which includes more than 60,000 pages of documents filed by prosecutors and more than 20,000 filed by Nichols' team.