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HENDERSON (AP) -- One of two men accused in the notorious Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant killings committed a quarter-century ago wants the judge removed from his upcoming trial.

Darnell Hartsfield is facing a possible death sentence when he is tried for five capital murder charges for the abduction and shooting deaths of five people from the Kilgore KFC in 1983.

Hartsfield's cousin, Romeo Pinkerton, 49, of Tyler, pleaded guilty in October to his role in the slayings. In his plea, made in the midst of his capital murder trial that could have resulted in a death sentence, he accepted five life prison terms.

In a printed handwritten motion from prison, where Hartsfield already is serving a life prison sentence for perjury, he is asking state District Judge J. Clay Gossett be off his case.

In the five-page note received two weeks ago by the court in Rusk County in Henderson, Hartsfield said he believed Gossett is biased after heading earlier grand juries related to the KFC slayings and was the trial judge in a 2005 KFC-related case where Hartsfield was convicted of perjury and given a life prison sentence.

"To proceed in the upcoming KFC capital (sic) murder trial, would be a denial of due process," Hartsfield, 46, wrote. "Judges (sic) action to continue in prosecution will be improper and prejudiced."

Gossett said Tuesday the request was not something he could do himself and a hearing would have to be held on the matter. No date has been set.

No trial date for Hartsfield has been set. Prosecutors have asked it be moved from Henderson because of publicity in the high-profile case that became one of Texas' longest unsolved mass murders. Gossett moved Pinkerton's trial to New Boston, in far northeast Texas.

Gossett said he was attending a judicial conference later this month and planned to ask judges from the Dallas and San Antonio areas about moving the trial there and about availability of courtroom space, likely in the fall. The inquiry may be moot depending on the outcome of Hartsfield's request he be removed, the judge said.

"I may not even be on the case," Gossett said.

The five victims were found dead along an East Texas oilfield road about 15 miles from the KFC restaurant in Kilgore where they were abducted during a holdup the previous night, Sept. 23, 1983.

During opening statements of Pinkerton's trial, prosecutors for the first time disclosed a third person was involved in the slayings, that DNA tests confirmed he had raped one of the female victims. The rape also had never been disclosed publicly.

In December, KFC Corp. reinstated a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of that third person. The restaurant company issued a similar reward after the slayings but it never was claimed.

Killed were David Maxwell, 20; Mary Tyler, 37; Opie Ann Hughes, 39; Joey Johnson, 20; and Monte Landers, 19. All but Landers worked at the restaurant about 25 miles east of Tyler and 115 miles east of Dallas. Landers was a friend of Maxwell and Johnson and was visiting them as the restaurant was closing for the night.

Pinkerton, a convicted burglar, had been to prison at least five times and had been out of prison just two days when the crime occurred.

DNA technology not available until recently showed Pinkerton's blood was found on a napkin at the scene. Blood from Hartsfield, who was arrested for aggravated robbery three days after the slayings, was found on a box of cash register tapes.