The last two defendants in the 2007 murder of a South Delta man in California are set to go to trial this fall.
Bill Dobbs, 48, was found murdered on the side of the road in Indio, California in November 2007.
Last month, three of the five people found guilty in the Tsawwassen man's murder were sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. In April, Jackie Lynn Dunson, Fernando Antonio Benavidez and Ronald Wesley Handwerk were convicted of first-degree murder in Riverside County Superior Court.
Dobbs was last seen alive leaving the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino with another man, later identified as Fernando Antonio Benavidez, one of the accused in the case, at around 3:45 a.m. on Nov. 26, 2007.
A passing motorist found his body on the side of an Indio road the next day. His throat had been slashed.
Jackie Dunson, Benavidez and Handwerk were tried together in the muder. Two other suspects, Robert Lee Dunson and Rogelio Leon Zuniga are being tried separately.
All five pleaded not guilty.
Benavidez is accused of luring Dobbs to the Dunson apartment where he was allegedly beaten and robbed. Zuniga and Robert Dunson are accused of taking Dobbs to a remote area where his throat was slashed multiple times. A passing motorist found his body the next day alongside a road north of Indio.
Dobbs had recently bought a home in the Indio area and was staying there with his common-law wife, Toni Dawson, at the time of his murder.
Zuniga and Robert Dunson are still facing murder charges in the case. Their next court appearance is scheduled for Aug. 29 with a trial expected in the fall.
Robert Dunson could face the death penalty if convicted.
"I'm almost there, and it was a lot of work to get to this stage," Dawson said this week. "It will be nice to have the closure when it's all done."
-with files from the Province
