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Man sentenced for killing woman found in Gorman

by City News Service • May 31, 2019

Victim Kimberly Harvill

LOS ANGELES – A man was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for murdering a woman who prosecutors said was killed and dumped in a desolate area near state Route 138 in Gorman because she was a witness to a shooting.

Alex Richard Valdez, 31, was convicted Feb. 6 of first-degree murder for the shooting death of 26-year-old Kimberly Harvill.

Jurors also found true the special circumstance allegation of killing a witness.

A second defendant, Joshua Aaron Robertson, 29, pleaded no contest Jan. 18 to one count each of first-degree murder, possession of a flammable device, and possession of a firearm by a felon, along with three counts of kidnapping and two unrelated arson charges.

He was immediately sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole following his plea.

Prosecutors said Harvill was killed because she was a witness to a shooting in the Fresno area involving the two men that occurred days before she was murdered.

Harvill’s body was discovered in some brush near a shopping cart on Gorman Post Road in August 2016, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Sgt. Ken Perry told jurors in Valdez’s trial.

Robertson and his then-girlfriend, Brittney Sue Humphrey, who was Harvill’s half-sister, subsequently kidnapped Harvill’s three children, then 2, 3 and 5 years old.

The children were found safe in August 2016 in a motel outside Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the care of a good Samaritan who notified law enforcement. Robertson and Humphrey were arrested the following day in Pueblo, Colorado, and were subsequently charged with Harvill’s murder.

Prosecutors subsequently filed an amended complaint charging Robertson and Valdez with Harvill’s killing, saying they did not believe they had enough evidence to proceed with a murder case against her half-sister.

Humphrey, then 23, pleaded no contest in 2017 to kidnapping her half- sister’s three children and was sentenced to 13 years in state prison.

Previous related stories:

Man convicted of killing woman found in northern L.A. County

Man pleads no contest in woman’s killing

Woman pleads to kidnapping children of slain mother

Arraignment postponed for couple in stepsister’s killing

Stepsister, man charged in woman’s killing

Suspects arrested in kidnapping-homicide

Body ID’d, two suspects wanted for questioning

Public’s help needed to identify female body found in Gorman

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Filed Under: Crime/ Safety, Home

2 comments for "Man sentenced for killing woman found in Gorman"

  1. Guilty says

    May 31, 2019 at 3:57 pm

    I hope the trash enjoy their incarceration.

    • Hahaha says

      June 1, 2019 at 7:40 am

      I hope the trash enjoys being 6 ft under.

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