Three teenage men charged with raping a female Umass Amherst student in her dorm room last October were ordered to submit DNA samples Tuesday in Hampshire Superior Court. .

The UMass sexual assault case inched forward as Judge Bertha Josephson ordered Emmanuel Bile, Adam Liccardi and Caleb Womack to join fellow defendant Justin King in submitting DNA samples. King has already submitted a sample. The four defendants, three of them eighteen years old, and one nineteen, lived in Pittsfield at the time of the alleged rape last October, though Womack now lives in Connecticut. Each defendant faces three aggravated rape charges, while Liccardi faces an additional count of rape.

State prosecuting attorney Jennifer Suhl says it’s currently unclear how all four defendants will be tried.

“There’s a lot of open questions as to whether or not they would all be tried together, or four separately, or maybe two at a time. A lot of it depends on the outcome of pretrial motions and hearings that are still to be held. So we won’t know that for several months.”

Suhl says the defendants’ DNA samples will be compared to samples taken from the victim in the case, and may be used as evidence at trial. She says a trial date is tentatively set for December, though that could be delayed by DNA analysis, which can take as long as six months. All four defendants are free on bail – but face several limitations including a curfew and GPS monitoring. They are due in court for another pretrial hearing July 26th.