Rice has been charged with murder in the 2007 stabbing death of Anita Knutson, 18, her roommate at the time.

Defense attorneys William Sand and Gogen Bains asked North Central District Court Judge Richard Hagar at the Minot hearing for a delay, saying they were given a large, 90 gigabyte file of information from the prosecution on Tuesday for review.

They said most of the information in the documents was given to them previously, and it was taking their staff too long to review boilerplate information so close to the trial. They also argued it was a time-sink for their computers, taking five hours to download.

State prosecutors Tiffany Sorgen and Christopher Nelson said that while the defense had seen much of the information in the files already, the new information was starred in the file, making it easy to find. Sorgen said the changes were noted on an audit trail page and were easy to find.

North Central District Judge Richard Hagar, at right, speaks with prosecution attorneys Christopher Nelson, left, and Tiffany Sorgen, center.

Hagar concluded the conversation by reminding both attorneys their “licenses are on the line” if they were not telling him the truth.

Wanting to move the case forward, Hagar barred any discovery from being added to the case after next Tuesday.

“There should be no new discovery from this point forward” without a compelling reason to drive a continuation, he said. Speaking to the attorneys, he added, “I will hold you in contempt and I will sanction you if that’s a problem.”

“I’m not going to be kind to last minute discovery,” he said, “so please keep that in mind.”

Having faced multiple delays, Rice’s trial comes three years and one day after her arrest.

The trial was moved to Grand Forks because potential jurors had shown prejudice toward Rice in questionnaires. Knutson’s murder has received a large amount of media coverage of Knutson’s murder, including the creation of a documentary.

Prosecutors on Thursday also asked for identification of a private investigator hired by the defense as its expert witness and requested a distinction between a witness as an “expert” or “agent.” Expert witnesses can rely on whatever source of information they deem appropriate.

Hagar determined the expert opinion from the defense will be admissible at trial.