Because of the special circumstance allegations, Urdiales is eligible for the death penalty, the district attorney’s office said. He is appealing a death sentence in Illinois and is expected to be extradited to Orange County pending completion of that appeal, the district attorney’s office said. No date for extradition has been set, Emami said.
Urdiales was a U.S. Marine stationed at various locations in Southern California from 1984 until his discharge in April 1991. Urdiales is accused of murdering four women, including one in Orange County, two in Riverside County, and one in San Diego County between 1986 and 1989. After his discharge in 1991, Urdiales moved back to his home state of Illinois. In 1995, he is accused of murdering a fifth woman, his third victim in Riverside County, while on vacation in Palm Springs.
Brandley is believed to have been Urdiales’ first victim in a string of murders of women. She was volunteering as an usher at a Saddleback College jazz pianist concert on the evening of Jan. 18, 1986. Urdiales is accused of having driven to the college from Camp Pendleton armed with a 6-inch hunting knife with the intention of murdering a random victim.
After the concert, Brandley left a reception in the Fine Arts complex and began walking to her car, when Urdiales allegedly approached her from behind in a dimly lit parking lot, stabbing her 41 times in the back, neck, chest and hands, and then fled.
Urdiales is also accused in the murders of three alleged prostitutes, two in 1988 and one in 1989. Two of those murders took place in Riverside County and one in San Diego County.
On vacation in Southern California in 1995, he is alleged to have committed yet another murder, again in Riverside County.
