The man accused of trying to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh will finally go to trial next June, three years after his arrest.

Nicholas Roske, who traveled from California to Justice Kavanaugh’s Maryland home in 2022, will have his trial begin on June 9.

U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte held the first hearing Tuesday, two years after Mr. Roske’s arrest, with his lawyers and prosecutors agreeing to the trial date for the start of jury selection. The trial is expected to last a week, according to The Associated Press.

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Mr. Roske pleaded not guilty after he was arrested. Both sides have been unable to reach a pretrial agreement or plea deal.

Police arrested Mr. Roske, who was 26 at the time, outside the Montgomery County home of Justice Kavanaugh on June 8, 2022. 

They said Mr. Roske confessed to being angry about the court’s pending rulings on abortion and the Second Amendment and planned to kill Justice Kavanaugh and himself to give his life a purpose.

Deputy U.S. marshals stationed outside the justice’s home spotted Mr. Roske as he exited a taxi. He then walked down the road and called 911 on himself. He said he had traveled from his home in Simi Valley, California, to kill a justice, had a firearm in his suitcase and was having suicidal thoughts, authorities said.

County police arrived and arrested Mr. Roske. They reported finding in his gear a Glock 17 pistol, tactical vest, tactical knife, ammunition, pepper spray, zip ties and tools, including a crowbar, according to court documents.

Mr. Roske told a police detective he was upset about the recently leaked draft opinion showing the high court was poised to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that established a national right to abortion. He also said he was upset about the way he thought Justice Kavanaugh would rule in that case and in gun rights cases, the detective said.

Mr. Roske was charged with violating a law that forbids attempting or threatening to kidnap or kill a federal judge. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

He has been held in federal custody since his arrest.

In July 2022, his attorneys moved to suppress the statements he made to law enforcement expressing his intent to kill the justice on the day of his arrest.

In a motion filed in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, Mr. Roske’s attorneys requested a hearing on whether their client spoke voluntarily to law enforcement.

The court didn’t rule on the motion. It did agree to remove the August 2022 trial date from the docket. 

A new date wasn’t set until this week.

According to legal filings, the government consented numerous times to the defense team’s requests for more time to investigate the charges up until Tuesday’s hearing.

In a less than 10-minute status hearing in November 2022, the judge suggested at a certain point he may order a mental health evaluation of Mr. Roske. 

During the exchange, Mr. Roske noted he was on medication but understood he was in a federal courthouse.

“It is always possible — the court doesn’t get involved in plea discussions, but they may eventuate, and if they were to eventuate, I still would need to be able to evaluate the ability of Mr. Roske to appreciate and understand what’s being discussed by way of plea,” reads a transcript of the hearing.

Since there are some sealed documents in the docket, legal experts note mental health could have been part of the delay in setting the trial date.

• Stephen Dinan contributed to this report.