3rd suspect in shooting case arraigned

The third murder suspect in the shooting death of Kimberly Harvill whose body was found near Gorman last year was formally charged with the crime Tuesday.

Alex Richard Valdez, a 29-year-old warehouse worker who lives in Firebaugh west of Fresno, appeared Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior court Tuesday where he was arraigned on one felony count of murder.

“Valdez was charged today with one count of murder in the same case as (Britany Sue) Humphrey and (Joshua Aaron) Robertson,” Ricardo Santiago, spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, told The Signal Tuesday.

The arraignment is scheduled to continue on April 19, he said.

Valdez was arrested in Fresno on an outstanding warrant shortly after 4 p.m. Friday, Det. Scott Matlock, of the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s Homicide Bureau told The Signal Tuesday.

Valdez, Robertson, Humphrey and Harvill were each involved in a shooting at a Fresno hotel that happened Aug. 12, 2016, Matlock said.

Harvill’s body was found lying in the brush by a motorist on Aug. 14 along Gorman Post Road, north of California State Route 138, in Lebec, near the Kern County line.

“Everybody was involved, including the victim and the two people previously arrested, in a shooting in Fresno,” he said, noting the shooting was not a fatal shooting.

“The shooting stemmed from a dispute in Fresno at a hotel,” he said.

A check with court documents on file at the Fresno County Superior Court revealed one firearm-related criminal charge filed against Valdez in August.

An arrest warrant in Fresno Case No. F16906329 was issued Aug. 22, 2016, for Valdez on charges of corporal injury of spouse, making criminal threats and assault with a firearm, all felonies.

An earlier arrest warrant was issued by the same court for Valdez on May 16, 2016, for corporal injury to a spouse, records also show.

The pair is scheduled to appear on the same day Valdez appears for his continued arraignment, on April 19.

The criminal complaint filed against Humphrey and Robertson charges them with the “willful, deliberate

and premeditated Murder” of Kimberly Harvill, mother of the three children.

The complaint also

alleges Robertson shot and killed Harvill and that he further broke the law being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.

Harvill’s children – 5-year-old daughter Rylee Watkins; 3 year-old son

Brayden Watkins, and 2-year-old Joslynn Watkins – were found unharmed in New Mexico in August.

Humphrey and Robertson were arrested a short time later.