The California Attorney General’s Office will take on the prosecutor’s role in the penalty phase of the trial of admitted mass murderer Scott Dekraai, a move that clears the way for the case to resume.

The attorney general said Tuesday that it will no longer pursue its appeal of a 2015 ruling in which an Orange County judge forced the state to take on the Dekraai case because he believed local prosecutors could not “be trusted” to provide a fair trial. The ruling came after the judge heard misleading testimony from sheriff’s deputies about the county’s use of jailhouse informants.

Paul Wilson, whose wife, Christy, was one of the eight people shot by Dekraai in 2011 at a hair salon in Seal Beach, said he is “very happy” to have Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas off the case and to see potential movement toward a resolution.

“It will be great to get this thing moving forward and a healing process can begin.”

Related: Seal Beach shootings 5 years later: Dekraai still in limbo as case rocks legal system

Wilson said he and relatives of the other victims – Victoria Buzzo, David Caouette, Randy Lee Fannin, Michele Fast, Michelle Fournier, Lucia Kondas and Laura Webb – will meet with attorney general’s officials within weeks to develop “a plan.”

Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders, representing Dekraai, also welcomed the news.

“We are certainly glad that after significant consideration the attorney general reached this decision and we’re looking forward to learning more about what the agency envisions for the case,” Sanders said via email.

Susan Kang Schroeder, chief of staff at the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, did not respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday.

In March 2015, Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals heard testimony from Orange County deputies in which they denied or failed to disclose information about a network of jailhouse informants. When evidence emerged showing such a network existed, and that the deputies were running it, Goethals determined that local prosecutors should no longer be responsible for the Dekraai prosecution and that the state attorney general should step in.

The state appealed that ruling. But in November a state appellate court panel backed Goethals, citing what the justices described as “systemic” misconduct by prosecutors in Orange County. Tuesday was the deadline to appeal that ruling, but a spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office said the state would not push the appeal forward.

Though Tuesday also saw the appointment of interim Attorney General Kate Kenealy, it’s likely that Dekraai’s prosecution will be overseen by Gov. Jerry Brown’s nominee for attorney general, Xavier Becerra, who is expected to be confirmed by the Legislature by early April.

The case is expected to resume Jan. 20 for a hearing on what to do with secret logs kept on jail informants by deputies. Hearings to determine Dekraai’s penalty – life in prison or death – are likely to be set after questions about the secret logs are resolved.

The removal of local prosecutors from the Dekraai case, the deadliest mass shooting in county history, is among the most serious actions to come from Orange County’s snitch scandal.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it would conduct a civil rights investigation into the county District Attorney’s Office and the Sheriff’s Department. Also, over the past two years at least a half-dozen cases involving people convicted of murder or attempted murder have been changed – with some people convicted of crimes going free – because judges believed prosecutors misused informants or withheld information or both.

Contact the writer: tsaavedra@scng.com