Newsom reissues $50,000 rewards for Fresno unsolved homicide cases

Gavin Newsom has put $50,000 back on the table for tips in several Fresno homicide cases that have sat unsolved for years, including killings that left young children without mothers and families still waiting for arrests. The latest round renews a familiar question in Fresno County: whether reward money will finally produce a break, or whether it mostly serves as a public reminder that these files remain open.

Among the cases singled out was Sarah Roberts, 26, who was shot on Dec. 31, 2011, as she left a party in central Fresno. State material has said Roberts may have been caught in an exchange of gunfire between rival gangs, and earlier records described her as the mother of two young children. Newsom had already announced a $50,000 reward in her case in 2019, but the incentive was reissued again in the new statewide push.

The governor’s office also revived the reward for the 2016 killings of William Harris, 17, and Kayla DeBorde, 19, who were shot at a birthday party on Jan. 29, 2016, at a home on Orange Avenue south of Adams near Easton. Investigators said an estimated 150 to 300 guests were there when two rival groups got into an altercation and 35 gunshots were fired into the crowd. DeBorde was the mother of an 18-month-old girl. That case remains under the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department.

Two more Fresno killings were included in the reissue. Kyrin Wright, 19, was fatally shot in May 2021 outside the Parc Grove Commons apartment complex near Fresno Street and Clinton Avenue. Local reporting said a witness described the gunman as a man dressed in all black. Jacqueline Flores, 25, was killed on July 27, 2021, while sitting in her vehicle with her six-year-old daughter. In Flores’ case, the California Governor’s Office said the Fresno Police Department had exhausted investigative leads and provided Detective Miguel Alvarez and Detective Ben Barnes as contacts for information.

The reward program is authorized under California Penal Code Section 1547 and can pay up to $50,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction in certain unsolved crimes, including homicides and missing-person cases. Newsom’s office has used it before in Fresno-area killings, including separate 2019 reward announcements for Roberts and for Harris and DeBorde. For families in Fresno, the value of the program will not be measured by the size of the check, but by whether one person with the missing piece finally comes forward.