Palm Desert woman accused of killing husband with flag pole still not medically cleared; arraignment pushed a third time

INDIO, Calif. (KESQ) The arraignment of the Palm Desert woman accused of killing her husband with a flag pole was pushed back for a third time Monday after a judge said she still has not been medically cleared to appear.

Vicky Kim, 65, is now due in court Tuesday at the Larson Justice Center in Indio. Her arraignment was first set for Sept. 10, then continued to Sept. 11 and again to Monday. Each time, the court said she had not been medically cleared.

Prosecutors have asked that Kim be held without bail, which is expected to be argued at the arraignment. The murder complaint alleges she used a flag pole as a deadly weapon and personally inflicted great bodily injury, and notes she faces a potential life sentence.

Six arrests in a year

Deputies arrested Kim six times between September 2025 and January 2026, according to court records obtained by News Channel 3. Prosecutors filed five domestic violence cases against her during that stretch, totaling 10 counts: two of battery, three of corporal injury on a spouse, four of violating a protective order and one of elder abuse. All were misdemeanors except one corporal injury count filed in January as a felony.

The victim is identified in the filings only as John Doe. The district attorney's office has said the cases involved Kim's husband.

In the January case, a sheriff's deputy wrote in a sworn statement that deputies found Kim's husband with a visible injury to his nose. He said Kim slapped him in the face during an argument about finances and infidelity allegations, and that a restraining order required her to stay 100 yards away from him, the statement says. Kim told the deputy she hit him on the nose three times after an argument over finances, and said she had posted bail after the previous incident and planned to post bail again.

Court records show the felony count was amended to a misdemeanor the day after it was filed. The records do not show when Kim was released from custody or when the protective orders ended.

Prosecutors' objections

In an email to News Channel 3 on Sept. 10, the Riverside County District Attorney's Office said it charged Kim with a felony in January, obtained criminal protective orders and intended to "aggressively prosecute" her. "Despite our office's clear objections, a judge resolved all of the defendant's cases as misdemeanors, released her from custody, and terminated all protective orders that prosecutors worked hard to obtain," the office wrote.

Salas, who is prosecuting the murder case, said Friday the earlier cases involved "domestic violence charges, elder abuse charges, and violation of a protective order," and that the pattern began in September 2025.

"That is part of the reason why we requested protective orders, part of the reason why we objected to the resolution of the felony as a misdemeanor, because of the concern for this individual's safety in the future," she said.

Salas would not name the judge and said she could not comment on the court's decision or discuss the facts of the earlier cases, because they could be evidence at trial.

"It's certainly a very tragic turn of events that somebody who has previously been a victim in the criminal justice system is now where we are," she said.

A neighbor's account

Kelly McDaniel moved into The Enclave, the gated condo community on Gateway Drive, on Aug. 1. She said that about a week before the killing, she and her roommate saw an older man fall and stopped to help.

"He was so feeble, I had to use all my weight to get him up," McDaniel said. "He could barely walk. My hand was covered in blood."

McDaniel said the man told her his name was Rich. As they walked him home, she said, a woman approached and took him from them without asking if he was OK or thanking them. McDaniel said the woman was Kim.

The murder complaint identifies the victim only as R. Kaufman. The sheriff's office has not released his full name or age, saying next of kin had not been notified and the investigation is ongoing.

Kim also has an arrest outside California. Hawaii police records show she was arrested in July 2007 for a bomb threat at the airport in Kona. Police said she repeatedly claimed there was a bomb on a plane. The flight was emptied and every passenger and bag was screened again. Kim, then 46, was charged with first-degree terroristic threatening, a felony, and released the next day on $1,000 bail. How that case ended is not known.

Deputies were called to the 35000 block of Gateway Drive at 9:47 a.m. Sept. 4. They found a person with injuries from a physical assault who died at the scene. Kim was there and was arrested without incident, according to the Riverside County Sheriff's Office. Crime scene tape blocked off part of the gated community for much of the day, and the sheriff's office announced the arrest the next day.

Kim remains in custody at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside.

Anyone with information is asked to call Central Homicide Unit Investigator Chua at (951) 955-1700 or Palm Desert Sheriff's Station Investigator Mitroff at (760) 836-1600.

This story will be updated after the hearing.