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29 March 2024

Couple charged with murdering relative, kidnapping her kids

Joshua Robertson and Brittney Humphrey (AP)

Published
By AP

A California couple was charged with murder in the shooting death of a woman and the kidnapping of her three young children in a case that spanned three states, prosecutors announced Thursday.

Joshua Aaron Robertson and Brittney Sue Humphrey are charged with killing 26-year-old Kimberly Harvill, whose body was found with gunshot wounds along a road in a remote area of Los Angeles County on Aug. 14. Harvill was Humphrey’s half-sister.

Robertson, 27, and Humphrey, 22, were arrested in Pueblo, Colorado on Aug. 25, a day after the three children they’re charged with kidnapping were found safe in a motel outside Albuquerque, New Mexico. The three children are all Harvill’s and are between 2 and 5 years old.

Robertson was set to be arraigned Thursday while Humphrey was awaiting extradition from Colorado.

It was unclear whether they have attorneys.

Prosecutors are asking that their bail be set at $2 million.

Robertson is accused of firing the gun that killed Harvill in an act that both he and Humphrey planned ahead of time, according to charging documents.

The couple took Harvill’s children forcibly by instilling fear, according to the documents, which did not provide more details.

Investigators said Harvill and her children had most recently lived in Fresno and were transitory, moving from motel to motel, and depended on panhandling to survive.

Humphrey and Robertson were living in Lebec, the unincorporated area of Los Angeles County where Harvill was recently staying with her children and where she was killed, investigators said.