Convicted child molester Hannah Tubbs — the 26-year-old transgender woman who was serving a two-year sentence at a juvenile facility in Los Angeles — was ordered to stand trial on an unrelated murder charge after a judge found there was enough evidence in the case.
Tubbs appeared during a preliminary hearing held at a Bakersfield, Calif., courthouse on Monday where prosecutors presented evidence that Tubbs beat Michael Clark with a rock in April 2019, according to KGET.
According to testimony from Kern County Sheriff’s Sgt. Steven Davis, Tubbs and Clark were part of a “survivalist transient group” and were involved in an argument on the evening of April 20, 2019, while staying at the Keyesville campground.
Witnesses told Davis that Tubbs and Clark went for a walk, but only Tubbs came back to the campground.
Davis testified Tubbs, who was seen as the “enforcer” of the group, “hated” and abused Clark repeatedly. Witnesses told the sergeant that Tubbs demeaned Clark by making him crawl on his hands and knees to pick up cigarette butts.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Mark Chambless testified that he interviewed Tubbs in March 2020 and that Tubbs told him that it was a man named Chad Mizer who went for a walk in the woods with Clark. Tubbs said only Mizer returned to the campsite.
Chambless testified Tubbs eventually told him that she and Clark got in a fight and that she shoved Clark into the river, where he became unconscious.
Tubbs, however, provided investigators a different story a few days later and said another camper, Josef Buffaloe, allegedly choked Clark to death.
Tubbs said the group of campers then decided to “get rid” of Clark’s body by throwing it in the river. An autopsy conducted on Clark showed that he drowned.
Investigators testified that Tubbs identified herself as having two personalities — an “enforcer” side and a “transgender side.” Tubbs, who had previously gone under the name James, identifies as a woman.
Tubbs garnered national attention after Los Angeles County George Gascón declined to file a motion to move her child assault case to adult court. Tubbs was arrested after DNA evidence linked her to the 2014 sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl in a Denny’s bathroom.
Tubbs was 17 years old at the time of that incident.
Tubbs pleaded guilty to the molestation charge and was sentenced to two years at a youth treatment center in Los Angeles. She was transferred out of the juvenile facility and is being housed at a men’s jail in Kern County as she prepares to face the murder charge.
Deputy District Attorney Shea Sanna, who initially handled Tubbs’ case in LA County, told The Post that evidence in that molestation case could be used in Tubbs’s murder case should Kern County prosecutors decide to introduce it during trial.
The judge, however, found there was insufficient evidence to hold Tubbs for a robbery charge, which was dismissed. She remains at a Kern County jail in lieu of $1 million bail.
Her next court appearance is scheduled for June 2.
