DEFENDANT IN MODEL'S DEATH TO BE TRIED IN L.A. COUNTY.

Byline: Associated Press

A free-lance photographer charged in the killing of a former Raiders cheerleader and model must face trial in Los Angeles County, a Superior Court judge decided Friday.

Judge Donald Pitts set Sept. 9 as a trial date for Charles Rathbun, 38, the photographer accused in the slaying of Linda Sobek.

Rathbun has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and sexual assault.

Pitts refused to dismiss the murder charge against Rathbun, but was still weighing whether to throw out evidence against the defendant.

Evidence the defense wants suppressed includes coroner's testimony and information about the discovery of the body Nov. 25. Rathbun led investigators to her body, which was buried in a shallow grave in a remote area of the Angeles National Forest.

Sobek went out on what she believed to be a modeling assignment with Rathbun and was never seen alive again.

Rathbun has told authorities he killed Sobek during a photo shoot by accidentally running her over with a sport utility vehicle. Authorities have presented evidence that Sobek was asphyxiated, that her legs were tied and that she was raped with a foreign object.

The photographer was arrested after an apparent botched suicide that occurred amid a countywide search for Sobek.

In arguing for a change of venue, defense attorney Mark Werksman said massive pretrial publicity may have persuaded potential jurors that Rathbun is ``some kind of sexual predator, some kind of serial killer.''

Deputy District Attorney Steve Kay countered that Los Angeles County has a population of 9.3 million people and that jurors in high-profile cases like the O.J. Simpson trial and the Menendez brothers murder trial returned verdicts that favored the defense.