Man held in Las Vegas jail faces murder charges in Arizona

A man in custody at the Clark County Detention Center may soon be extradited to Arizona where he faces murder and other criminal charges in Kingman and Phoenix.

Joseph Franklin-Martinez Berryhill is being held on criminal charges at the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas and faces extradition proceedings to return him to Arizona.

The 34-year-old Arizona man is also wanted for prosecution in San Bernardino County, California.

Kingman deputy police chief Rusty Cooper said that Dollie Kosters, 80, was critically injured when Berryhill allegedly struck her in the face with a gun as she struggled for control of her purse when she was accosted in a commercial parking lot on Jan. 23. The Kingman resident was hospitalized locally before she was flown to Las Vegas’ Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, where she died Monday.

Berryhill also is suspected of another armed robbery in nearby Needles, California, just five hours after the purse snatching in Kingman. Henderson police arrested Berryhill five days later on Jan. 28 on suspicion of assorted fraud, burglary and narcotics offenses, Cooper said.

Cooper said evidence linking Berryhill to the Kingman robbery was recovered during his arrest in Henderson. He said Berryhill confessed when detectives from Kingman interviewed him on Jan. 29.

“Berryhill is also a suspect in a homicide and multiple armed robberies in the Phoenix area,” beginning in November, Cooper said. Kingman detectives are working closely with Nevada, California and Phoenix authorities to shore up charging decisions and extradition protocols, he said.