Christian Gerhartsreiter, charged with the 1985 murder of LASFS member John Sohus, will have his preliminary hearing on January 18, 2012. An Alhambra Superior Court judge set the date at a hearing on October 17. It has already been delayed twice, reports the San Marino Patch:

Defense attorney Brad Bailey told Patch Monday that he estimates the hearing will last six days.

During the preliminary hearing the prosecution presents evidence and the judge decides if enough exists for the case to go to trial. The defense previously said they expect the case to go to trial.

Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian requested the date aloud in the courtroom Monday and defense attorneys Brad Bailey, Jeffrey Denner and Kenneth Kahn agreed, as did Gerhartsreiter, to the hearing date.

The defense has received 11,000 pages of discovery for the case as well as several DVDs and video tapes.