A Fresno man who was accused of murdering a mother of three in 2016 was found guilty Wednesday and now faces the possibility of life in prison.

Alex Richard Valdez, 31, is charged with murdering Kimberly Harvill in 2016, and also faced a special circumstance allegation of lying in wait, making him eligible for the death penalty, according to District Attorney’s Office officials.

Valdez pled not guilty, and faced a jury trial that began near the end of January. His alleged accomplice, Joshua Aaron Robertson, 30, entered an open no contest plea to one count of first-degree murder and three counts of kidnapping, according to Ricardo Santiago, spokesperson for the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office.

Robertson was immediately sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to District Attorney’s Office officials.

On Aug. 12, 2016, Valdez and Robertson were in a Fresno hotel room, where a family affair reportedly turned into a shootout, according to officials.

Both Harvill, 26, and her stepsister, Brittney Sue Humphrey, 24 — who is also Robertson’s wife — were also believed to be at the scene of the shooting.

Harvill was believed to have witnessed the shooting, which prosecutors believe led to her murder at a later date.   

Two days after the alleged shootout in Fresno, Harvill’s body was discovered in Lebec, a remote area north of Gorman.

After Harvill’s body was found, the investigation turned its attention to Humphrey and Robertson, who they believed Harvill was living with at the time.

The search for Humphrey and Robertson led investigators to find Harvill’s children in Albuquerque, New Mexico and the suspects in Colorado a day later.

Valdez, although believed not to be the triggerman in the shooting, was arrested in March 2017 on suspicion of connection to the case, according to Detective Scott Matlock of the county’s Homicide Bureau.

“Everyone in this case was involved in that Fresno shooting, and Harvill was the witness,” said Matlock.

Robertson and Valdez have been charged with murdering Harvill, and are also facing a special circumstance allegation of lying in wait, making them eligible for the death penalty, according to District Attorney’s Office officials.

Robertson also was charged with one count of possession of a firearm by a felon, two counts of an unrelated arson and one count of possession of flammable material.

In 2017, Humphrey was sentenced to 13 years in state prison for kidnapping Harvill’s three children, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said.

She pleaded no contest to three counts of kidnapping of Harvill’s children, whose ages were 5, 3 and 2 when the crime occurred.

Valdez is scheduled to return to court on March 1 for sentencing, where he faces the possibility of life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to DA officials.

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