Robert Baltovich's retrial for second-degree murder in the death of Elizabeth Bain was delayed again yesterday after the Crown said it was not ready to proceed. The jury of six men and six women watched as Mr. Baltovich stood to hear the indictment against him read out.

"I regret to say that I have to ask for one more indulgence," Crown counsel Philip Kotanen told the jury, after noting that the trial had already been adjourned once. "I am simply not in a position to commence the trial at this date."

They were then asked to return on Tuesday.

Mr. Kotanen said that the defence team of James Lockyer, Heather McArthur and Joanne McLean had agreed to the adjournment, but that it was at the direct request of the Crown.

Ms. Bain, a 22-year-old student at the University of Toronto's Scarborough campus, disappeared on June 19, 1990, after telling her mother she was going to play tennis. Her car was found three days later, a couple of blocks from the campus, with a copious quantity of her blood in the back.

Her body has never been found. It is the second trial for Mr. Baltovich, her boyfriend.