The Region - News from Nov. 13, 1986

Frustrated by delays in getting the “Night Stalker” murder case to trial, the prosecution filed a challenge to remove the judge hearing extensive pretrial motions. Deputy Dist. Atty. Phil Halpin filed a peremptory challenge against Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dion Morrow after the judge declined to voluntarily relinquish the case. Halpin asked Morrow to step aside after the judge said another death-penalty murder trial already under way had forced him to delay further hearings on a defense request to have Richard Ramirez’s Dec. 2 trial transferred out of the county due to pretrial publicity. Ramirez, 26, a drifter and self-proclaimed devil-worshiper from El Paso, is charged with 14 murders in Southern California and a slaying in San Francisco.