SAN DIEGO -- Over a prosecutor's objections, a judge Friday set an Aug. 14 trial date for Scott Erskine, a convicted rapist accused in the strangulation deaths of two South Bay boys more than nine years ago.

Judge Kenneth So agreed to postpone the trial for five months, after defense attorneys said they needed more time to prepare for new charges accusing Erskine of raping and killing a woman in Palm Beach, Fla. in 1989.

Erskine's trial had been scheduled to start March 10.

So said he granted the extra time so all parties will be ready to pick a jury in August.

"I'm not going to let this thing slip any longer," the judge said.

Erskine faces the death penalty if convicted of the killings of Jonathan Sellers, 9, and Charlie Keever, 13.

The boys disappeared March 27, 1993, while riding their bicycles following a Saturday lunch at a fast-food restaurant in the Palm City district of southern San Diego.

Prosecutor Valerie Summers told the judge that waiting until summer to try the defendant was "way too long."

She said the delay has had longlasting effects on Charlie Keever's mother, Maria.

"She told me she believes this is killing her," Summers told the judge.

Once So announced the new trial date, Maria Keever quickly exited the courtroom in tears.

There were no suspects in the killings of the boys until March 2001, when authorities announced that DNA found on the victims matched Erskine's. He was serving a 70-years-to-life term in state prison for rape.

Prosecutors in San Diego announced in August that authorities in Florida notified them that there is a physical match linking Erskine to the June 23, 1989, rape and killing of 26-year-old Renee Baker.

Defense attorney Larry Ainbinder told the judge that Erskine's defense team needs the extra time to prepare a pretrial motion claiming that California's death penalty is unconstitutional.

Ainbinder said the defense is considering telling a jury that Erskine suffers from possible brain damage or a brain disorder.