YC man guilty in Yolo killing

WOODLAND - A jury has convicted a former field hand of second-degree murder in the death of a Yolo County pistachio farmer.

Bikkar Singh, 24, of Yuba City faces up to 45 years in prison after the jury’s verdict Friday in the death of 64-year-old Gian Singh Heer, also of Yuba City, in May 2006.

Prosecutors said Singh shot Heer three times with Heer’s own shotgun after the two argued, then took the keys to Heer’s truck from the dead man’s pocket, loaded his corpse in the back and dumped his body in an irrigation ditch.

Singh maintained that he shot Heer in self-defense.

Sentencing was set for Jan. 15.