A Fresno man accused of killing Kimberly Harvill, whose body was found in Gorman last year has been ordered to stand trial for murder following a week-long preliminary hearing.
Joshua Aaron Robertson, 28, was last week found to answer to the criminal charge of murder, Ricardo Santiago, spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office told The Signal
“He was held to answer (to the charges filed against him) on Nov. 7,” he said.
Robertson is the second of two men ordered to stand trial for last year’s gunshot killing of Harvill.
Alex Richard Valdez, a 29-year-old warehouse worker who lives in Firebaugh west of Fresno, was told last month that his murder trial would begin March 1, 2018.
Robertson and Valdez are charged with murdering Harvill, whose body was discovered in a remote area of Gorman on Aug. 14, 2016. They also face a special circumstance allegation of lying in wait, making them eligible for the death penalty.
Robertson’s preliminary hearing began Oct. 31 and ended a week ago.
During a preliminary hearing prosecutors present evidence in the case, and the defense can respond, after which the judge will decide if the case should go to trial.
Robertson is to be arraigned – or formally charged – with murder on Nov. 21.
A Fresno woman – who was arrested with Robertson in August 2016 in connection with the same killing – pleaded no contest in September to kidnapping three young children of her half-sister, Harvill.
Brittney Sue Humphrey, 23, was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
Humphrey and Robertson were alleged to have kidnapped the three young children of Kimberly Harvill a little more than a year ago. The three children were ages 5, 3 and 2 when the crime occurred.
The children were later found abandoned in New Mexico at a motel. Humphrey and Robertson were arrested in Colorado in October 2016 on suspicion of murdering Harvill and of then kidnapping Harvill’s three children.
Robertson also was charged with one count of possession of a firearm by a felon and two counts of an unrelated arson and one count of possession of flammable material.
Valdez was arrested in Fresno about six months later, on March 24, on an outstanding warrant, Det. Scott Matlock, of the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s Homicide Bureau told The Signal Tuesday.
“He was arrested in connection with Kimberly Harvill’s death,” he said.
Harvill’s body was found lying in the brush by a motorist on Aug. 14, 2016, along Gorman Post Road, north of California State Route 138, in Lebec, near the Kern County line. She had been shot.
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