COEUR d’ALENE — Kootenai County prosecutors want Jonathan Renfro to have his day in court.

Soon.

“As we know, cases do not age like wine. They age like milk,” Deputy Prosecutor David Robbins said Friday in front of First District Judge Lansing Haynes.

When Renfro, 26, the accused killer of Coeur d’Alene Police Sgt. Greg Moore, faces a jury this summer, more than two years will have passed since Moore was shot while patrolling a Coeur d’Alene neighborhood.

Haynes solidified a July 31 trial date and allowed for the public defender’s office to select from one of two Idaho attorneys with death-penalty expertise to serve as Renfro’s lead attorney.

“Delays in the case are attributable to the lengthy, appropriate pre-trial motion practice,” Haynes said. “I’m not assigning any blame for unnecessary delays because I don’t think the delays were unnecessary at all.”

Renfro faces the death penalty if found guilty.

At a previous hearing, Seattle-based attorney Mark Larranaga was put forward by the public-defender’s office to serve as the lead attorney in the case. However, Haynes was concerned about delaying the case because Larranaga is unavailable to represent Renfro until early 2018.

Haynes asked Kootenai County Public Defender Linda Paine to seek out any Idaho attorneys who have been qualified by the state’s supreme court to serve as lead counsel in a death penalty case. Paine found two, Caldwell-based defense attorney Scott Fouser and Twin-Falls based defense attorney Keith Roark.

Both attorneys were in the courtroom at the Kootenai County jail on Friday, and briefly spoke with Haynes about their availability. Fouser and Roark said they would be able to represent Renfro at the end of July, but both attorneys added they need time to prepare.

“I don’t know any trial attorney who doesn’t prefer to do things later rather than sooner, for that reason,” Roark said.

Haynes said it was not necessary for him to appoint either attorney as lead counsel, and left the matter to Renfro and the public defender’s office. Paine said she could submit their selection by Tuesday.

The jury trial will begin on July 31. Haynes estimated it will take five to eight weeks.

After the hearing, Roark and Fouser shook hands with and introduced themselves to Renfro.