TESTS DELAY TRIAL START.

Byline: Howard Breuer Staff Writer

PASADENA - The trial of a pediatrician charged with strangling a pregnant colleague won't begin for at least a month as attorneys wait for DNA tests that will reveal whether the woman was impregnated by her husband or the doctor accused of the killing.

Dr. Kevin Paul Anderson, 40, sat silently in the jury box, his hands cuffed behind his back, during a five-minute appearance Thursday before Pasadena Superior Court Judge Teri Schwartz.

Schwartz ordered the case back Feb. 24, although attorneys were uncertain whether they would be prepared for trial that soon.

Prosecutor Marian Thompson said the District Attorney's Office still has not decided whether to seek the death penalty over the Nov. 11 incident, in which Anderson allegedly lured Dr. Deepti Gupta of Burbank up the Angeles Crest Highway, strangled her and pushed her sport-utility vehicle off a cliff.

After receiving a coroner's report on Gupta, the grand jury on Jan. 13 added an allegation to their indictment that Anderson intentionally terminated her pregnancy - an indication the pregnancy had not reached the fetal stage, which would have compelled a second murder charge.

But attorneys are still awaiting DNA tests ordered in December to determine whether the 33-year-old victim was impregnated by Anderson or her husband - a UCLA engineering professor.

``They're still doing a DNA test to determine the paternity of the fetus,'' said Anderson's attorney, Michael Abzug. ``The autopsy report (only) shows the maturity.''

Abzug told Schwartz he's also awaiting the complete tape recordings of Anderson's statements during his arrest.

Court documents obtained last month say Anderson, chief of pediatrics at St. Luke Medical Center in Pasadena, admitted to strangling Gupta - a colleague at Huntington Hospital - because she made death threats against his family.

The documents also say Anderson suffers from depression.

Those documents - along with the grand jury transcript, search warrants, and most other documents in the case - were sealed Thursday by Schwartz.

Six Anderson supporters attended the brief hearing, but declined to talk with reporters.

Anderson's family is liquidating some assets to pay for his legal defense and various experts, Abzug told Schwartz. He would not say what those assets were.

Schwartz also granted a request by Abzug that he be permitted to speak with his client directly, and not through electronic devices, when they talk in the jail.

Anderson is being held without bail.