Law enforcement officers look over the evidence near the remains of a SUV involved in a shooting attack in San Bernardino, California December 3, 2015. (Reuters Photo)
The trial for Enrique Marquez, accused of supplying assault weapons to the husband and wife who massacred 14 people in San Bernardino, California, has been postponed until July, prosecutors said Thursday.
Marquez, 24, has pleaded not guilty to charges of lying about purchasing firearms that the pair later used for their December shooting rampage.
U.S. District Court Judge Jesus Bernal, citing requests from both the prosecution and the defense for more time to prepare, moved the start of the trial from Feb. 23 to July 19.
Bernal signed the order on Monday, and it was distributed to the press on Thursday by U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Eileen Decker.
Authorities say the husband-and-wife shooters, Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 29, opened fire at a holiday gathering of Farook's co-workers on Dec. 2, killing 14 people and wounding 22.
Farook, the U.S.-born son of Pakistani immigrants, and Malik, a Pakistani native he married in Saudi Arabia in 2014, died in a shootout with police four hours after the massacre.
Marquez, a childhood friend of Farook, was also accused in a five-count indictment of entering a sham marriage with a Russian immigrant, whose sister is married to Farook's older brother, so that she could live in the United States.
He is accused to conspiring with Farook in 2011 and 2012 to provide material support to terrorists including weapons, explosives and personnel for attacks that were never carried out.
© Thomson Reuters 2016