WORCESTER, Mass. — The trial of a Princeton man charged with fatally stabbing another man at a Worcester party earlier this year has been delayed because his lawyer was recently appointed a judge.

Twenty-one-year-old Jay Anderson’s first-degree murder trial was scheduled to start last week.

The Telegram & Gazette reported that the trial was postponed until next year because Anderson’s court-appointed lawyer, Christopher LoConto, was named last month as an associate justice of the Fitchburg District Court.

Anderson has pleaded not guilty to stabbing 20-year-old Boris Velez II in the neck during an argument at a party in February. Velez died at a hospital three days later. Anderson is being held without bail.