HILO — Two previously postponed murder trials have been delayed again.

Jury selection was to start yesterday in Hilo Circuit Court in the trials of Tyrone Vesperas and Marwan Jackson.

Trial for Vesperas, 40, a former National Guard sergeant and Iraq war veteran who allegedly killed his son and seriously wounded his pregnant estranged wife in a stabbing spree on Kamehameha Day 2007, is now scheduled for May 14 at 9 a.m.

Judge Glenn Hara granted a continuance to Vesperas' attorney, Deputy Public Defender Michael Ebesugawa. Ebesugawa told the judge he plans a defense alleging that his client was not responsible for his actions due to a physical or mental disease, disorder or defect.

"There has been some delay in obtaining Mr. Vesperas' military medical records," Ebesugawa said.

Vesperas, who appeared in court in an orange prison jumpsuit, his hands and ankles shackled, is accused of killing his 14-year-old son, Tyran Vesperas-Saniatan, by slicing his jugular vein with a military combat knife.

The boy reportedly intervened to defend his mother, Cheryl-Lyn Vesperas. She was repeatedly stabbed, allegedly by Tyrone Vesperas, in the Ainaloa home where the couple formerly lived.

Cheryl-Lyn Vesperas survived the attack, but her unborn child — who was fathered by another man and due to be born any day — did not.

Trial for Jackson, accused of the beating death of his estranged pregnant girlfriend Sarah Fay in her Hawaiian Acres home, was taken off yesterday's court docket. Fay was pronounced brain dead after the assault and was taken off life support after giving birth to a healthy baby boy, Josiah Darcy Fay, about three weeks later.

The proceeding was delayed after Kagami told Judge Greg Nakamura Thursday that the prosecution intends to appeal to the state's Intermediate Court of Appeals a ruling by the judge that excluded part of a statement allegedly made by Jackson to police during interrogation.

No new trial date has been set.