CENTENNIAL | The second round of jury selection could take less than half of the time Judge Carlos Samour Jr. originally allotted, and the trial against accused Aurora theater shooter James Holmes could begin as early as May, the judge said Wednesday.

Four more jurors moved on to group questioning on the sixth day of individual questioning in the jury selection for the Aurora Theater shooting trial.

More jurors are moving on to group questioning than initially anticipated. Nearly 25 out of the necessary 120 jurors have been selected for group questioning. The individual questioning round was set to last 16 weeks, but if it continues at the current pace it could conclude in 6 weeks. Samour said the next phase of jury selection could start in the first week of April and the trial could start in May.

Although more jurors are moving on, individual questioning continues to move slowly. Six jurors were scheduled for questioning Wednesday morning and six in the afternoon. One juror in the morning was late and rescheduled for the afternoon and one juror from the afternoon did not show up.

Samour said that the number of jurors scheduled and the length of questioning would be re-evaluated on Thursday.

One juror was questioned for over 90 minutes  because of concern over his ability to set aside previously formed opinions about the case. The middle-aged man said he felt that Holmes was guilty because he was arrested outside of the theater. Defense attorney Tamara Brady’s challenge was rejected.

Jurors were released for work and financial hardships, inability to hand down the death penalty and inability to presume innocence.

The attorneys continued to focus questions on death penalty and mental illness. Potential jurors said automatic use of the death penalty should be considered for terrorist attacks, in the case of Hitler or ISIS.

Holmes sat quietly in an oversized gray sweater and drew on a notepad. He was repeatedly referred to as the “guy” with the mustache, sweater and glasses by prosecuting attorney George Brauchler. Each time the comment was objected to by the defense.

Jury selection will resume Thursday with six jurors scheduled for the morning and six for the evening.