RICHMOND, Va. – A man accused of a 1996 abduction that authorities believe was the work of the “Route 29 stalker” will seek a change of venue away from Prince William County, his lawyers said Tuesday at his arraignment.

Darrell David Rice is charged with abduction with intent to defile, robbery and malicious wounding in the Feb. 26, 1996, attack on a 38-year-old woman who had stopped her car along a highway. He faces a possible life sentence.

Prince William Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul Ebert has said he thinks Rice is the “Route 29 stalker,” who is believed responsible for the 1996 killing of Alicia Showalter Reynolds in Culpeper and for attempts to flag down more than two dozen women along the Route 29 corridor that year.

Defense attorney Claire Caldwell said a change of venue is needed because of the intense news coverage that surrounded the Route 29 stalker cases at that time and the fact that Ebert has publicly labeled Rice as the stalker.

“There was an enormous amount of publicity about all those cases,” Cardwell said. “That makes it hard for anyone to receive a fair trial.”

Cardwell said Rice will plead not guilty. A trial date was set for Dec. 6.

Ebert said he does not see a need for a change in venue.

“These are stale cases,” he said, noting that fast-growing Prince William County has seen an influx of many tens of thousands of residents who lived elsewhere in 1996.

Rice is serving a prison sentence for the 1997 attempted abduction of a bicyclist in Shenandoah National Park and is eligible for release in about two years.

He was charged in 2002 in federal court with the hate-crime killings of two hikers in the park, Julianne Williams of St. Cloud, Minn., and Laura “Lollie” Winans of Unity, Maine. The women were lovers, and prosecutors had said Rice killed the women because of his hatred of homosexuals.

But the case was dismissed earlier this year after DNA evidence cast doubt on Rice’s guilt.

In the Prince William abduction case, police say the woman stopped her car late at night along Route 234 after a man repeatedly flashed his lights and honked his horn at her. The man convinced her that sparks were coming from her car and that it was unsafe to drive.

The man offered the woman a ride and once she was in the vehicle attempted to assault her, police said. The woman escaped, but suffered a broken ankle and other injuries.

Ebert has said the case fits the pattern of the Route 29 stalker, and noted that the crimes stopped after Rice was arrested for the bicyclist’s abduction.