IOWA CITY, Iowa — A first-degree murder trial has been delayed again for a man charged with strangling his wife in 1997 and dumping her body in an Iowa ditch.

Reports said that the jury trial for 73-year-old John Bloomfield has been rescheduled for Jan. 27.

Bloomfield was arrested in November at his home in St. Paul and has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Frances Bloomfield, in Iowa City, Iowa, about 17 years ago.

Earlier this year, a judge allowed the cancer-stricken Bloomfield to leave an Iowa jail and live under strict monitoring at his Minnesota home until trial.

If found guilty, Bloomfield faces a mandatory life sentence in prison.