Convicted murderer Richard Howard Watkins, 56, fired his defense attorney in a surprise move Tuesday at his sentencing prompting his hearing to be delayed until Feb. 8. The hearing wasn’t underway for a minute at the San Joaquin County courthouse in Stockton when Watkins informed Judge Bernard J. Garber he was firing his defense attorney, Public Defender Adam Grace.Watkins was convicted last year of killing Kelly Marelich, 22, of Manteca.Watkins, in custody for the last three years, told the judge he wanted to defend himself for the March 2014 murder that Manteca Police said took place in a Moffat Boulevard motel room. Evidence showed he then put the woman’s body in a grocery cart and pushed it down South Main Street to a shopping center in the 1100 block of South Main Street where he left it in a dumpster behind a sporting goods store.