Impeached Attorney General Ken Paxton moved a small step closer to trial Thursday on long-delayed felony securities fraud charges.

Meeting briefly in a Houston courtroom with a new judge in the case, defense lawyers and prosecutors agreed Thursday to meet again Oct. 6 to deal with pending motions and set a trial date for the 2015 charges alleging that Paxton violated state securities laws in private business deals earlier in the decade.

“At some point it has to come to an end,” special prosecutor Brian Wice told reporters afterward. “I think today was the first step in a journey of a thousand miles to make sure that justice ultimately comes to be.”

Paxton attended the short pretrial setting before state District Judge Andrea Beall. He sat in the front row but did not speak.