JUDGE DENIES REQUEST TO MOVE MURDER TRIAL.

Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO Staff Writer

LANCASTER -- A judge Tuesday denied a request to move out of the Antelope Valley the trial of Park and Ride lot murder suspect Raymond Jennings, who said pretrial local publicity would deny him a fair trial.

The former security guard is accused in the 2000 slaying of Palmdale teenager Michelle O'Keefe at a Park and Ride lot he patrolled.

The trial, however, may still be moved out of the Antelope Valley, depending on what happens at a hearing Friday. Another judge is going to determine whether the case is a so- called ``long cause'' matter, or a trial that would last longer than 15 court days.

The prosecution is contending that the trial can be completed within a three-week period; Jennings' attorney is arguing otherwise.

Typically, trials lasting longer than three weeks are sent to courts in Los Angeles or elsewhere because the Antelope Valley Courthouse does not have the staffing and security to handle a lengthy trial.

Antelope Valley Superior Court Judge Thomas White on Tuesday denied Jennings' change of venue motion without prejudice, meaning his attorney could raise it again before a jury is selected.

Jennings, a 32-year-old Iraq war veteran who was arrested in December while home on leave, Valley College student. He remained in custody in lieu of $1 million bail.

O'Keefe was found shot to death behind the wheel of her Mustang in the lot on Avenue S, where she had left her car while she rode with a friend to work as an extra in the taping of a music video for rapper Kid Rock.

Jennings told investigators he heard gunfire and watched the Mustang roll backward out of a parking space but didn't see the killer because his view was blocked by a parked van.

Jennings became a suspect within months of the shooting. He was named in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed in December 2000 by O'Keefe's parents but was not criminally charged until prosecutors filed the case Nov. 15.

Prosecutors said they initially found insufficient evidence to file criminal charges, but later concluded proceedings in the civil case changed the character of the evidence.

The gun that killed O'Keefe has never been found. In May 2002, members of a local scuba diving club combed the murky bottom of nearby Palmdale Lake but turned up nothing.

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com

[phone]