Serial Killer Wanted for Trial in Saddleback Slayings

Convicted serial killer Andrew Urdiales will stand trial in the killing of  Saddleback College student Robbin Brandley and four others, if Orange County prosecutors get their way.

The Orange County district attorney's office announced plans to extradite Urdiales in 2009, and Deputy District Attorney Howard Gundy announced the formal request to do so Thursday.

Urdiales was charged on Aug. 5, 2009, with murder by the Orange County district attorney's office. He was also convicted of other killings in Illinois, where Gov. Pat Quinn abolished the death penalty on Wednesday. Fifteen convicted murderers remained on death row, including Urdiales.

Brandley, a 23-year-old volunteer usher for the night at a college jazz piano concert, was stabbed to death in a Saddleback College parking lot Jan. 18, 1986 on her way back to her car, according to an Orange County district attorney's office statement.

"That evening," the statement reads, "Urdiales is accused of driving to the college from Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton armed with a 6-inch blade hunting knife with the intent to murder a random victim."

"He is accused of murdering the victim by stabbing her 41 times in the back, neck, chest, and hands, and then fleeing the scene."

Urdiales would be eligible for the death penalty, but Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas "has not made a decision about the death penalty yet,'' Gundy told City News Service.