A 22-year-old man accused in the shooting death of a Desert Hot Springs resident 3 1/2 years ago pleaded not guilty Monday to a murder charge.
Richard Alex Bernal of Desert Hot Springs is accused of killing 35-year-old Emanuel Jenkins, who was found dead in the early morning hours of June 15, 2017, in the 66200 block of Pierson Boulevard, near Cactus Drive.
Bernal was arraigned at the Larson Justice Center in Indio before Riverside County Superior Court Judge Harold Hopp, who kept the defendant’s bail at $1 million and scheduled a Feb. 9 felony settlement conference.
Along with a murder charge, Bernal faces a sentence-enhancing allegation of discharging a firearm causing great bodily injury.
The Desert Hot Springs Police Department have not released additional information about the killing, nor revealed how they identified Bernal as a suspect.
By the time prosecutors charged the defendant with murder on Dec. 22, he was already in custody facing two other felony cases.
Bernal is awaiting trial stemming from allegations that he opened fire on two men in Desert Hot Springs during a gun sale-turned-robbery in August 2018. One of the men was hospitalized with several gunshot wounds.
The defendant was subsequently charged with attempted murder and robbery. He is additionally awaiting trial on a felony charge of carrying a loaded firearm in which he was not the registered owner.
Bernal has no documented felony convictions in Riverside County, court records show.