A sex offender at the center of a firestorm of criticism against Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón pleaded not guilty to unrelated charges in Kern County for murder and robbery.
Hannah Tubbs, 26, was ordered to be held on $1 million bail following her arraignment in the 2019 death of Michael Clark.
A criminal complaint provided by the Kern County District Attorney’s office alleges Tubbs killed Clark on or about April 21, 2019.
Clark’s body was found in the Kern River in August 2019. The College Place, Washington man was reported missing on May 2 by friends who visited the area with him.
Tubbs, who previously identified as James Edward Tubbs before coming out as transgender, was previously convicted of sexual assault in Los Angeles County. The sentence in that case made national headlines due to Gascón’s staunch opinions regarding underage defendants.
In 2019, Tubbs was linked through DNA evidence to a 2014 sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl in a Denny’s bathroom in Palmdale. Tubbs was 17 at the time.
Gascón, continuing his policy of refusing to try juveniles as adults, did not file a motion to move Tubbs to adult court, rather pursuing the case at the juvenile level. In January, Tubbs pleaded guilty and received a two-year sentence in a juvenile facility.
The progressive district attorney initially defended the decision not to charge Tubbs as an adult, but has since reversed course, and later called it a mistake.
In 2020, Tubbs was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon in Kern County, according to court records. She also had previous run-ins with the law in Idaho and Washington.
On Tuesday, Tubbs pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and robbery in the death of Michael Clark.
She is due back in court May 20.