TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – Defense attorneys for Phoenix Ikner, charged in the deadly Florida State campus shooting, are asking for the trial to be delayed.
The motion to continue, filed Monday, also asks for extensions of discovery deadlines.
Attorneys cite a heavy capital case load and a large amount of evidence to go through in order to properly try the case.
The motion also claims attorneys have “observed serious mental health issues” with Ikner that require time to understand. They say the current October trial date does not allow them sufficient time to prepare.
“Mr. Ikner has complex co-morbid conditions that are relevant to statutory mitigation,” the motion reads. “These conditions require time to investigate their unique interaction, and their impact on Mr. Ikner’s life and behavior. This requires in-depth investigation into Mr. Ikner’s childhood development.”
Judge Neff has not yet ruled on this latest motion to continue, though he’s generally taken a dim view of any further delays.
He previously ordered the defense to keep what amounts to a log of their time, to ensure the trial can proceed in an orderly fashion.
If the motion is granted, it would not be the first time Ikner’s trial was delayed.
He was initially set to stand trial in November 2025, however his previous attorney filed a request to withdraw from the case, citing an unspecified conflict of interest.
After a new defense team took over the case, the trial was delayed until March 2026.
Last October, Judge Lance Neff approved a motion from the defense attorneys to push the trial back to its current date, October 19, 2026.
In that first motion, the defense cited over 250 witnesses and thousands of hours of video to go through.
Earlier this year, Judge Neff set deadlines for submitting evidence, witnesses and pretrial motions. Monday’s motion says the defense has made “significant progress” in reviewing evidence, but says there is still “an enormous amount of data to be reviewed.”
Judge Neff also deferred a ruling on whether to delay the trial again. The pre-trial hearing in May was the first hearing since security and body camera footage were released from the day of the deadly April 2025 shooting. It was also the first hearing since Ikner’s ChatGPT logs were released that have resulted in several lawsuits.
In June, the defense team filed a motion to remove Judge Neff from the trial, saying he could not be fair based on what he said during the pre-trial hearing. Neff questioned the team’s need to interview so many witnesses. He denied that motion.
Ikner is accused of opening fire on FSU’s campus inside and outside the Student Union last year in April, killing two men and leaving several other people injured.
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