A woman was sentenced Wednesday to 13 years in prison for kidnapping the three young children of her murdered half-sister, whose body was found last year in northern Los Angeles County.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge M.L. Villar imposed the term on Brittney Sue Humphrey, 23, who pleaded no contest July 18 to three kidnapping counts for abducting the children, then aged 2, 3 and 5.

The youngsters were found safe in August 2016 in a motel outside Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the care of a good Samaritan who notified law enforcement. Humphrey and her then-boyfriend, Joshua Aaron Robertson, were arrested the following day in Pueblo, Colorado.

Humphrey and Robertson were initially charged with murdering her 26-year- old half-sister, Kimberly Harvill, whose body was found in August 2016 in some brush by a motorist traveling along Gorman Post Road, north of State Route 138.

But prosecutors subsequently filed an amended complaint charging Robertson and a second man, Alex Richard Valdez, with Harvill's killing. Los Angeles County prosecutors said they did not believe they had enough evidence to proceed with a murder case against Humphrey.

The murder charges against Robertson and Valdez include the special circumstance allegations of murder to avoid lawful arrest, murder of a witness to a crime and murder by means of lying in wait, along with an allegation that Robertson personally and intentionally discharged a handgun.

Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to seek the death penalty against Robertson and Valdez.

By City News Service

Source: http://www.nbclosangeles.com/