By Ozzy Hernandez
RIVERSIDE, CA – The jury trial of Ronnie Yarber reconvened Wednesday at the Riverside Southwest Justice Center/Riverside County Superior Court with testimony from the alleged victim, who appeared to be reluctant to support the prosecution’s case against Yarber.
Yarber is accused of assaulting the victim at the time of her pregnancy as well as endangering their infant child back in 2018.
This is day three of the criminal trial. Yarber was arrested on June 14, 2018, and was subsequently released from custody after posting a $50,000 bail.
The first on the stand was the alleged victim. She had a relationship with Yarber and they have two children together, with one of them also being an alleged victim in the incident. 
The witness’ testimony had a rocky beginning that took several dramatic turns when she answered some of Deputy District Attorney Veronica Mittino’s questions.
“I don’t know who that is and I don’t recall,” said the victim repeatedly with indignation and frustration to the line of questioning.
This was in response to numerous questions mentioning “Investigator Gil, ” which seemed to trigger the witness. This caused her to not directly answer the questions and to ask for an early break.
Furthermore, she said has no memory of “Gil” nor of any law enforcement personnel, by name, with whom she interacted.
She also denied making any allegations and statements to the police that would incriminate the accused even further…like when asked if Yarber choked her, she answered, “No.”
The witness’s erratic behavior compelled the judge to scold her for improperly answering the questions. He grew increasingly impatient with the way she was answering.
Judge Timothy Freer also admonished the prosecution for their style of questioning, noting “the questions seemed to restrict the witness’s scope of intellect.
“Instead of referring to this, and referring to names, have the witness explain the story to you. Let her explain the sequence of events in her own words without confusing her,” said the judge.
The victim recalled the first offense where the victim visited Yarber on June 14 so “he can see the baby” upon his request. He was only a few months old and she was 38 weeks pregnant.
After staying for a half hour, the victim attempted to make contact with Yarber but he refused to give back their baby.
“He didn’t acknowledge me,” said the victim. She attempted to make contact with Yarber despite his refusal, according to the victim.
After repeatedly asking for the baby back, the victim claims Yarber told her to “call the police, that is how we are solving this problem.”
She did not call the police, and eventually Yarber brought the baby out safely.
And the victim denied ever being choked.
She only called the police hours later after the incident, where she was visited by a police officer, but the victim has stated numerous times she does not remember.
The following day the victim gave birth to their second child.
In court, the victim continued to deny making any statements about the accused ever abusing her. She said she just went to the hospital because her “stomach was uncomfortable.”
Private attorney Joshua Hanks grilled the victim about her actions during the incident.
He got the victim witness to talk about an incident with a woman named Britney Johnson where the two fought physically.
He then asked the victim, “Do you get agitated easily?” which was met with a fierce “with disrespectful people” from the witness.
The trial is ongoing.
