One of two Fresno men accused of killing Kimberly Harvill, whose body was found near Gorman more than two years ago, has been sentenced to life in prison without parole after pleading no contest Friday to murder and other crimes.
Joshua Aaron Robertson, 29, appeared Friday in Department 105 of the Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles, where he entered an open no contest plea to one count of first-degree murder, three counts of kidnapping, two counts of a unrelated arson and one count each for possession of a flammable device and firearm by a felon.
“He also admitted the special circumstance allegations of killing a witness (Harvill) and lying in wait,” Greg Risling, spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, said Wednesday.
“He was immediately sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole,” Risling said.
Robertson’s co-accused in the case, Alex Richard Valdez, 30, charged with murder, appeared Wednesday in court for the beginning of his jury trial.
Jury selection is expected to begin Thursday morning.
On Aug. 14, 2016, a motorist found the body of Kimberly Harvill in the brush along Gorman Post Road, north of Highway 138, in Lebec, near the Kern County line. She had been shot.
Both Robertson and Valdez faced a special circumstance allegation of lying in wait, which refers to the act of hiding and waiting for an individual with the intent to kill that person or inflict serious bodily harm to that person.
Brittney Sue Humphrey, 23, of Fresno, was arrested with Robertson in August 2016 in connection with the same killing pleaded no contest more than a year ago to kidnapping three young children of her half-sister, Harvill. She was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
Humphrey and Robertson were alleged to have kidnapped the three young children of Kimberly Harvill. The three children were ages 5, 3 and 2 when the crime occurred.
The children were later found abandoned in a New Mexico motel.
Humphrey and Robertson were arrested in Colorado in October 2016 on suspicion of murdering Harvill and then kidnapping Harvill’s three children.
661-287-5527
on Twitter
@jamesarthurholt
