Hearing coming up in Fanshier murder case

The man accused of inflicting the injuries that killed a young Taft child in 2011 is scheduled to be in court this week.

Dustin William Wedel, 26, faces charges of murder, willful cruelty to a child and assaulting a child under age 8 years of age – inflicting great bodily injury in connection with the Jan. 23 death of three-year-old James Fanshier.

The boy was pronounced dead after Wedel's live-in girlfriend, the ex-girlfriend of the boy's mother, called 911 when she found him unresponsive in a small home at 200 ½ Van Buren Street in Ford City.

Firefighters and paramedics responded, and the boy was pronounced dead

Kern County Sheriff's deputies determined the boy's death was suspicious and questioned both Wedel and his girlfriend.

Neither was charged, however, until autopsy results released five months later determined the boy was the victim of a homicide.
He was killed by blunt force trauma, the Kern County Coroner said.

Wedel was arrested that day and has been held since in Kern County Jail on $1.5 million bail.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Wedel is scheduled to be in Kern County Superior Court in Bakersfield on Friday for a readiness hearing.

His trial is currently scheduled to start on Aug. 20.