The new judge in the Brian Nichols courthouse shooting case on Monday set a trial date of July 10 as he seeks to get the much-delayed case moving.

Judge James Bodiford also said he plans to work on Saturdays and have the trial finished before Christmas.

John Spink / AJC (ENLARGE)

Assistant District Attorneys Christopher Quinn and Michele McCutcheon take part in the court proceedings Monday.

PHOTOS • A look at the case 2005-present • Penalty phase | Verdict • Weeks in court: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 • Interactive graphic: The 2005 shootings • Video: Nichols' confession MORE STORIES 4 years after attacks, courthouse lacks security plan  Gwinnett won't prosecute Nichols for kidnapping  Feds won't seek death penalty for Nichols  In prison, cellphone is coveted contraband  Police reveal little about Nichols manhunt errors  Nichols trial holdouts: 'Show me something'  Nichols says he was at war with U.S. government in taped confession AJC's full trial coverage RELATED LINKS Atlanta news Georgia and metro news

The new trial date came on the eve of the third anniversary of Nichols' alleged courthouse rampage, in which a judge, clerk and sheriff's deputy were slain. Nichols also is charged with a fourth slaying while at large.

"I've got to set a realistic date and make it happen, and if I can't do that perhaps they chose the wrong judge," Bodiford, a Cobb County jurist named last month to replace the first judge in the case, said in a hearing Monday.

He also heard a new request from defense attorneys to move the trial from the Fulton County Courthouse in downtown Atlanta to the Richard B. Russell federal court building a few blocks away.

Nichols' defense team has argued that the Fulton courthouse is a crime scene because three of Nichols' alleged murders occurred there. He allegedly escaped from custody while in the courthouse on other charges, shot the three courthouse victims and fled the scene.

Prosecutors told Bodiford they would not object to a move to the Russell Building. Lawyers noted that in the past construction at the building made such a move unworkable, but that the construction is finished.

Bodiford said he will consider the request but is not expected to rule on that issue in Monday's hearing.

Federal judges at the Russell Building also would have to approve the move.

"We're certainly sympathetic to Judge Bodiford," Chief Judge Jack Camp of the U.S. District Court in Atlanta said Monday. "But we'd need to know the length of the trial and the amount of space they'd need. We'd have to weigh that with the trials we have coming up along with the security concerns."

The first judge in the Nichols case, Hilton Fuller, got the case as far as initial jury selection but then halted it amid disputes over defense funding. He stepped down after being quoted in a magazine article as saying of Nichols: "Everyone in the world knows he did it."

Staff Writer Bill Rankin contributed to the report.