PORT ORCHARD — The Kitsap County Superior Court judge presiding over David Kalac’s double murder case agreed to delay the trial one last time.

The trial was first held over to Sept. 19, then to Oct. 31. Defense attorney Adrian Pimentel told Superior Court Judge Jeanette Dalton that he needed more time to prepare a defense of “diminished capacity due to alcohol use.” Dalton agreed to move the trial one last time to Feb. 21, 2017.

“If I set it out to February, I expect it to go in February,” Dalton warned the defense team.

Kalas was arrested and charge with the murder of his girlfriend, Amber Coplin, 30, and the toddler daughter of Coplin’s roommate in November 2014.

Defense attorneys do not contest that Kalac did, in fact, commit the murders — only that diminished capacity, due mostly to Kalac’s severe alcoholism, reduced Kalac’s ability to reason.

The case reached an even higher profile after Kalac posted pictures on the internet and fled to Oregon. He eventually surrendered to police while in Oregon, and was returned to Washington to face trial. He will remain in Kitsap County Jail in Port Orchard until trial.

Pimentel became the lead defense attorney on the case when the original lead counsel, Ron Ness, died suddenly in August of natural causes.

Mark Briant is a reporter with the Bremerton Patriot and Central Kitsap Reporter. He can be contacted at mbriant@sound publishing.com.