{"id":85618,"date":"2019-02-07T08:42:58","date_gmt":"2019-02-07T16:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theavtimes.com\/?p=85618"},"modified":"2019-02-07T08:49:48","modified_gmt":"2019-02-07T16:49:48","slug":"man-convicted-of-killing-woman-found-in-northern-l-a-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2019\/02\/07\/man-convicted-of-killing-woman-found-in-northern-l-a-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Man convicted of killing woman found in northern L.A. County"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Victim Kimberly Harvill<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LOS ANGELES – A man was convicted Wednesday of murdering a woman who prosecutors said was killed in 2016 and dumped near State Route 138 in Gorman because she was a witness to a shooting.<\/p>\n

Jurors deliberated for less than a day before finding Alex Richard Valdez<\/strong>, 31, guilty of first-degree murder for the shooting death of Kimberly Harvill<\/strong>. The panel also found true the special circumstance allegation of killing a witness.<\/p>\n

Valdez is facing life in prison without the possibility of parole, with sentencing set for March 1 in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom.<\/p>\n

A second defendant, Joshua Aaron Robertson<\/strong>, 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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

Robertson and his then-girlfriend, Brittney Sue Humphrey<\/strong>, who is Harvill’s half-sister, subsequently kidnapped Harvill’s three children, then 2, 3 and 5 years old.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Previous related stories:<\/p>\n

Man pleads no contest in woman\u2019s killing<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Woman pleads to kidnapping children of slain mother<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Arraignment postponed for couple in stepsister\u2019s killing<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Stepsister, man charged in woman\u2019s killing<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Suspects arrested in kidnapping-homicide<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Body ID\u2019d, two suspects wanted for questioning<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Public\u2019s help needed to identify female body found in Gorman<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES – A man was convicted Wednesday of murdering a woman who prosecutors said was killed in 2016 and dumped near State Route 138 in Gorman because she was a witness to a shooting. Jurors deliberated for less than a day before finding Alex Richard Valdez, 31, guilty of first-degree murder for the shooting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":85620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[719,1499],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85618"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}