LAKEPORT, Calif. – A man who authorities said killed his friend as the two were touring Northern California has been ordered to stand trial following a Wednesday morning preliminary hearing.

Mavrick William Fisher, 21, was held to answer for the murder of 25-year-old Grant David Whitaker of Mackinaw, Illinois.

At Wednesday’s preliminary hearing, the court heard from case investigators who revealed new details in the homicide.

As a result of Wednesday’s preliminary hearing, Fisher is facing trial for charges including murder, assault with a deadly weapon and a special allegation of inflicting great bodily injury, and grand theft of a vehicle, according to District Attorney Susan Krones.

Fisher, who has connections to Elko, Nevada, and Riverside, has been in custody since late August. He was arrested in Mexico, where authorities say he had fled after the murder of Whitaker.

The two men – both of them deaf – had been traveling around California looking for property to purchase as part of a plan to create a deaf farming community.

They are reported to have had a disagreement and Whitaker planned to part ways.

Based on the investigation so far, authorities believe Fisher killed Whitaker with a blow to the head with a rock at Richardson Grove State Park in Humboldt County on Aug. 20.

Krones said Fisher placed Whitaker’s body in a sleeping bag and put him in the 2011 Chevrolet Impala which belonged to Whitaker’s grandmother, who loaned it to her grandson for the trip.

Fisher drove the Chevrolet from Humboldt County to a property on Scotts Valley Road near Lakeport where he dumped Whitaker’s body, Krones said.

Whitaker’s grandmother reported him missing on Aug. 24 in Tazewell County, Illinois.

Lake County Sheriff’s deputies found the Chevy Impala at the Clearlake Oaks Dollar General and impounded it later that same day.

On Aug. 26, after executing a search warrant at the Scotts Valley Road location, sheriff’s personnel located Whitaker’s body.

On the same day, Fisher was contacted and arrested by law enforcement in Rosarito, Mexico. He was returned to Lake County on Aug. 28 and booked into the Lake County Jail, where he has remained in custody.

In a September court appearance, he pleaded not guilty in the case.

An autopsy found that Whitaker died of blunt force trauma to the left side of his head after being hit with a rock, Krones said.

Based on the jurisdiction California Penal Code section 790 gives Lake County because Whitaker’s body was found here, Krones reached an agreement with the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office to handle the case.

Krones said Fisher will be arraigned on Tuesday, Nov. 5, in Department 3. A trial date will not be set until some point after that arraignment.

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