Suspect in 2017 homicide case to stand trial for murder

A 26-year-old man accused in the 2017 shooting death of a Desert Hot Springs resident must stand trial on a murder charge, a judge ruled today.

Richard Alex Bernal of Desert Hot Springs was held to answer Thursday after being 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 also faces a sentence-enhancing allegation of discharging a firearm causing great bodily injury, according to case records.

He is scheduled to appear at a post-preliminary hearing arraignment on Aug. 29.

Bernal was arraigned in 2020 at the Larson Justice Center in Indio before Riverside County Superior Court Judge Harold Hopp, who kept the defendant's bail at $1 million.

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, 2020 he was already in custody facing multiple other felony cases.   

In one case, at the time of his initial arraignment, Bernal was 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 in that case, with all counts being dismissed the following year. Other cases are current ongoing, according to court records.

Bernal has no documented felony convictions in Riverside County, court records show.