Lowndes County Circuit Court Judge Terri Bozeman Lovell granted a defense motion Monday to continue the trial date for triple murder suspect Deandra Marquis Lee until October.

The case was originally set to go to trial on April 7.

Lee faces six capital murder charges in connection with the June 3, 2012, murders of 9-year-old twins, Jordan and Taylor Dejerinett, from Montgomery, and their 73-year-old caretaker, Jack Mac Girdner of Hope Hull.

Lee’s attorney Jerry Thornton told Lovell that the defense could not be ready by the April 7 trial date.

“Their mitigation expert is not ready,” said Lowndes County District Attorney Charlotte M. Tesmer. “Their investigators still have some things to cover. That means (the case) won’t come to trial until October of this year.”

Tesmer said her office is ready to try the case.

The Dejerinett children and Girdner had been reported missing on June 4, 2012, and their bodies were discovered the following day by the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office and the Alabama Bureau of Investigation on a dirt road off of Alabama Highway 21 near Hayneville, three miles south of U.S. Highway 80.

A day later, the ABI confirmed they had recovered the missing 1998 white Mercedes, owned by Girdner. The car, which was missing all four of its doors, was discovered in the Minter community in south Dallas County.

Lee was later declared a suspect in the murders and captured June 9, 2012, huddled in a Selma apartment.

Lee, who was 22 at the time of the crime, pleaded not guilty last September and is currently being held in the Autauga County Jail with no bond.