Despite efforts from defense attorneys to push back the federal trial in the case of Buffalo mass shooter Payton Gendron, lawyers are set to receive a start date next week.

Gendron killed 10 Black people and injured three others at a Tops supermarket on Jefferson Avenue in May 2022. He's currently serving a lifetime prison sentence after pleading guilty to state charges.

The judge is standing firm that while he is being flexible with the defense team after they lost one of their key attorneys to a cancer diagnosis last month, he can only be a "little" flexible.

The defense team has found a new attorney to fill the vacant spot and they will file a motion for that attorney’s approval this coming Friday.

The prosecution would then have until Monday to respond. 

Attorneys discussed a motion of suppression to multiple aggravation factors. Those are circumstances surrounding a crime that can lead to a harsher sentence for the defendant.

Attorneys also discussed what information would be admissible in the trial.

When talking about whether the specific names of other places Gendron considered acting out the mass shooting should be included, the defense questioned relevance.

Attorneys for Gendron argue it doesn’t speak to the idea of ideological rationale noting that not every racist remark the defendant made or wrote should be admissible.

The state, however, argues that anything written online is relevant to the trial.

They also went over the discussion of racially motivated killings in the trial, since the First Amendment says the race of victims or the defendant cannot, by law, be used to impact the decisions of jurors in a federal trial.

Notably, U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Vilardo says he will read all victim impact statements before they’re presented to the jury.

He’ll then decide what is allowed based on whether they’re by the Eighth Amendment. 

After that, the judge said he would issue a text order on the trial date. He intends to begin as close as possible to the initial timeline. 

Although not set in stone, special questionnaires are currently set to be held on Oct. 20, with jury selection set to begin on Jan. 5, 2026.