ST. CHARLES, Mo. - A judge on Tuesday ordered a Chicago-area man to stay jailed in this St. Louis suburb at least for another month as he challenges efforts to return him to Illinois, where he's accused in the roadside shooting deaths of his wife and three children.

Christopher Vaughn's extradition fight comes as he has begun building his defense team, hiring as one of his attorneys a high-profile St. Louis lawyer whose client list has included the city's biggest names, from former professional football star Marshall Faulk to rapper Murphy Lee.

A day after governors of Illinois and Missouri signed off on having Vaughn returned to Illinois to face eight counts of first-degree murder, a St. Charles County judge Tuesday honored defense requests for time to prepare a written challenge to the extradition.

Associate Circuit Judge William Lohmar, who on Monday revoked Vaughn's $1 million bond on a fugitive count, delayed the extradition matter until July 25, at which time Lohmar will hear arguments and sort out whether Vaughn should be sent back to Will County, Ill.

David Waltrip, a Vaughn attorney, sidestepped questions about possible grounds for Vaughn's extradition fight, saying he had not yet seen any paperwork from Illinois. But Vaughn is expected to file what's called a writ of habeas corpus, which generally challenge the legal steps taken to arrest and detain someone.

Waltrip angrily rejecting a reporter's assertion that he was "stalling" the extradition. But the attorney said the seriousness of the Illinois charges were punctuated by a prosecutor's public pronouncements there that he was reviewing whether to Vaughn should face the death penalty.

James Glasgow, Will County's state's attorney, said in a statement Tuesday that while he finds the extradition case's delay disappointing, "it remains an absolute certainty" that Vaughn will be returned to his jurisdiction.

Vaughn, 32, was arrested Saturday at a funeral home here just hours before a memorial service for his wife, Kimberly Vaughn, 34, and the couple's children, Abigayle, 12, Cassandra, 11, and Blake, 8.

The mother and children were found shot to death June 14 in the family's parked sport utility vehicle along a service road near Channahon, about 40 miles southwest of Chicago, after a wounded Christopher Vaughn flagged down a motorist.

Vaughn, a computer security consultant, had superficial gunshot wounds in the leg and arm. Kimberly Vaughn was shot once and the children each were shot twice, and his 9mm handgun was found at the scene, authorities said.

Illinois authorities have not divulged a possible motive for the slayings, saying only that numerous interviews, forensic evidence, computer files and phone records led them to conclude that Christopher Vaughn killed his family.

While jailed here, Waltrip said, Vaughn has been under surveillance by jail staff but not on an official suicide watch. On Tuesday, Waltrip said Vaughn's mental health would be evaluated, though the attorney said he was unaware of any psychological issues with his client.

Rosenblum, who said he has been hired by Vaughn and his family to fight the Illinois murder counts, is among the St. Louis area's best-known attorneys - partly because of his Rolodex of recognizable clients, partly because of his courtroom success for them.

In 2005, Rosenblum won an acquittal for St. Louis Rams defensive end Leonard Little of driving while intoxicated - a felony given Little's guilty plea in a manslaughter case six years previously in which he admitted he was drunk. Little instead got two years of probation for misdemeanor speeding.

When Rosenblum represented Faulk in 2003, jurors deliberated less than two hours before ruling in favor of the former NFL most valuable player in a civil case accusing him of domestic abuse. In rejecting claims by Faulk's former girlfriend - the mother of three of Faulk's children - jurors awarded $125 to Faulk, though he had sought only $1 in symbolic damages.

Originally from Missouri, the Vaughns lived in Washington state before moving to the Chicago area about two years ago.