Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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Police responded about 9:30 a.m. Monday to a Clovis church after its pastor reported a broken window. The window had embedded wire to prevent it from shattering and allowing entry by unauthorized persons, and the pastor estimated replacement cost at $800. • • • A gun shop owner called police about 3:20 p.m. Monday to report a stolen weapon. The owner said three young males had entered his store looking for different types of weapons. While two of them kept the owner occupied, a third grabbed a 12-gauge Norinco Model 98 shotg...
Kay Prater is a statistical rarity: A survivor of two different types of cancer. That’s one reason why she is serving as one of two co-chairs for the 2004 Relay for Life, scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. Friday and run until 10 a.m. Saturday at Ned Houk Park. “I have a very strong family background (of cancer),” Prater said. “ I have a granddaughter and a daughter who are survivors. I lost a grandmother, a mother, a father-in-law, and I’ve lost aunts and friends and co-workers.” Relay for Life is an annual fundraiser...
Clovis police investigated a shots-fired incident at their own offices about 4:15 p.m. April 29. Sometime between the evening of April 28 and morning of April 29, someone shot bullets through windows at the 300 block of Connelly, leaving bullet holes or bullet marks in three rooms of the station. Officers reported they have no suspects but if caught those responsible face felony charges of shooting at an occupied building. • • • Shortly before 6 p.m. Friday, police responded to a veteran’s club where the bartender said hi...
Rex Pope once supported Sheriff Gary Graves and his election campaign. Now, the man who’s lived in De Baca County for 17 years said he has collected more than 300 signatures of people he says want Graves out of the office. “On the petition it says, ‘We, the registered voters of De Baca County, are requesting the resignation of Sheriff Graves,’” Pope said. “He’s caused a lot of problems and cost the county a lot of money.” Graves said he won’t resign. “The history of De Baca County is they have had a sheriff here for ab...
CANNON AIR FORCE BASE — Staff Sgt. Wes Leaverton likes to blow things up. Or, perhaps more important — he likes making sure things don’t blow up when they’re not supposed to. “It’s a little different from the normal everyday Air Force,” he said. “Our mission is so varied.” As a member of Cannon’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal Squadron, Leaverton was part of a team deployed to Iraq to clean up dangerous messes left around the country. Cannon personnel dealt with everything from unexploded American bombs to stored weaponry rem... Full story
Walters Army Pvt. Tim L. Walters has arrived at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Aberdeen, Md., to complete the track vehicle mechanic advanced individual training course. Walters is a 1999 graduate of Clovis High School Ship dropped two bombs in Fallujah Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Beau T. Altman, whose wife, Jaelynn, is the daughter of Malinda Gooding of Clovis, recently participated in Operation Vigilant Resolve while assigned to the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, in Norfolk, Va. During the operation, Strike Fighter...
U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici has asked the federal government to pay $368,000 to the City of Clovis for 911 dispatching, now that Cannon Air Force Base has discontinued its own independent dispatch services. According to Domenici’s office, Cannon ended its own service in 2002, forcing Clovis to provide the same services. “Cannon and the City of Clovis have a close working relationship, and this EMS equipment is sorely needed for the city to properly serve the base,” Domenici said. “I’ve requested funds to allow the city to purchas... Full story
Fernando Garcia hugs attorney Jim Klipstine Jr. of Hobbs at the Curry County Courthouse after being found not guilty of second-degree murder and tampering with evidence Thursday. Garcia was found guilty of dogfighting. (CNJ staff photo: Eric Kluth) Dogfight guilt seen by panel Jurors spent two hours trying to sort conflicting stories. A Curry County jury on Thursday found Fernando Garcia innocent of second-degree murder. “This is the best feeling in my life,” Garcia said minutes after the verdict. The incident that left Moise...
Garcia hopes to resume a normal life, feels sorry for Moises Ortiz’s loved ones. Fernando Garcia just wants to move forward. The 20-year-old Clovis resident spent nearly a year in jail, charged with killing Moises Ortiz, before a jury found him innocent of the charge. Garcia had been released in January on a $65,000 bond and was acquitted Thursday afternoon of second-degree murder and tampering with evidence. Garcia still faces sentencing on a dogfighting conviction, but his attorney, James W. Klipstine Jr., asked the c...
A Portales man came to the Clovis Police Department about 5 p.m. on April 22 to report a case of stalking via computer. The man said he had walked from one location to another in Clovis on April 19. After returning home, he received a pop-up message on his computer by someone who described every event during his walk and said “your removal will be quite nice.” The man said he had already reported the incident to the Portales police, who told him to report it to Clovis police. • • • About 9:30 p.m. on April 22, police re...
Fernando Garcia no longer faces the possibility of life in prison after prosecutors dropped the most serious charge of first-degree murder for lack of evidence. Deputy District Attorney Bryan McKay told the court on Wednesday that testimony so far hasn’t provided enough evidence to prove Garcia acted intentionally and deliberately in killing Moises Ortiz during a dogfight in south Clovis on Feb. 28, 2003. If Garcia, 20, had been convicted on the first-degree murder charge and received the maximum penalty, he wouldn’t hav...
CLOVIS — In a 90-minute debate of Republicans seeking the position of Ninth Judicial District Attorney, Incumbent Brett Carter promoted his experience while challenger Matt Chandler spoke of an aggressive new vision for fighting crime. Although both presented different visions for the future of the district attorney’s office, they were agreeable on one item: Something must be done about increasing crime in the district, which includes Roosevelt and Curry counties. “I think what’s a major concern to us is the increase in viol... Full story
Reporter's Notebook Clovis High School teachers invited 11 local veterans ranging from World War II to the current war in Iraq to the school on Thursday to share their combat experiences. “One of the questions the students asked was has (Korean War veteran Bob Simmons) had any nightmares, and he said his only nightmares are of his school-teaching days,” said high school teacher Kathy Smith. “We all laughed, of course.” While some parts of the presentation were humorous, Smith said students understood the seriousness of war....
About 1 p.m. Friday, police responded to a Clovis junior high school where the assistant principal had a 15-year-old male student in his office who had admitted to grabbing the breast of a 14-year-old female student. Police told the boy what he did was illegal, issued him a juvenile citation, and advised the boy’s mother they would inform her before they did anything further in the case. • • • Police responded about 5 p.m. Friday to the 700 block of North Oak where an 11-year-old boy said he had been kidnapped. The boy sai...
Fifth-graders from four school districts work to complete their habitats at Friday’s “Mars mission project” at Cannon Air Force Base. The students were at the base to learn how life on Mars might be in the future. CNJ photo: Eric Kluth. CANNON AIR FORCE BASE — Five months of hard work showed Friday as elementary students from four school districts helped build a model of what a base on Mars might look like. Cheryl Cunningham, a fifth grade teacher at Cameo Elementary in Clovis, helped supervise a group of students from Ca... Full story
The Clovis Police Department may soon have $125,000 added to its budget to purchase new police cars. At a meeting Tuesday morning, Clovis City Commission’s Public Safety Committee voted unanimously to recommend the full city commission add that amount to the police department’s capital budget to pay for police cars. The new budget, if approved, would be $250,000 for the next fiscal year. “We’ve got 16 vehicles now that really need to be replaced,” said police chief Bill Carey. That equipment may end up being the cheaper C...
City awarded reserve, guard support award Clovis City Manager Ray Mondragon accepted the “Above and Beyond” award on behalf of the City of Clovis from the Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve at a recent state meeting of the organization. ESGR is a committee of the Department of Defense that works to assist civilian employers in working with their employees who are members of the National Guard or the reserve components of the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force. Mondragon said Clovis was honored for exceptio...
Jackie Davidson couldn’t stop crying as she described her reaction to the shooting of her father, J.C. Tucker. Tucker was shot to death at his auto salvage and storage room business near Cannon Air Force Base on Sept. 4, and the case hasn’t yet been solved. The homicide is one of a growing number that have plagued Curry County in the last 16 months, prompting fear and confusion among victim’s families and a number of area residents. “The police said it was just a horrific scene with all the blood in that shop,” Davidson...
Curry County Sheriff Roger Hatcher is tired of all the homicides in Clovis and Curry County. He’s tired of the words “killed” and “Clovis” in the same sentence in newspapers and on television as far away as Amarillo, Roswell and Albuquerque. He’s not the only one concerned that almost as many people died by homicide in the last 16 months as in the previous five years combined. In fact, 9th Judicial District Attorney Brett Carter said Curry County is well on its way toward racking up more homicides this year than any other y... Full story
Clovis Detective Matthew Solari points out differences in a counterfeit $20 Wednesday at the Clovis Police Department. CNJ staff photo: Eric Kluth. Counterfeit currency is back in circulation. Clovis police arrested six people in December in connection with what they said was a counterfeiting ring. Now more fake bills are showing up in the region and police have collected more than $5,000 in fake bills since late last year — about half of that since mid-December, police said. Police Detective Matthew Solari said most of t... Full story
Reporter's notebook One of the smallest churches in Clovis had to cancel services over the winter and is seeking community help to raise $2,000 needed for repairs. According to Elder R.D. Wesson, pastor of the By the New and Living Way Church of God in Christ at 121 Thornton, the church’s central heating unit cannot be used because of break in the gas line. “The gas company has informed us that a line outside the church has a leak that needs to be repaired,” Wesson wrote in a letter to the Clovis News Journal. “We realize... Full story
After confusion, accusations of impropriety and the disqualification of one candidate, Brett Trembly has been elected Eastern New Mexico University’s student body president. Trembly received 278 votes while the incumbent president, Bob Cornelius, received 217 votes. Fabian Guzman received 159 votes and said he was disqualified because of an e-mail sent on his behalf, even though he did not approve it. Guzman said the elections board didn’t disqualify either of the other two candidates despite multiple complaints filed aga... Full story
Number of votes cast outnumbers the students who are listed as voting. When Eastern New Mexico University student Brett Trembly received the highest number of votes for student body president on Thursday, he was glad to see an increased turnout compared to previous elections. The 654 votes cast represented about a quarter of the ENMU’s 2,500 eligible voters — substantially more than previous elections that Trembly said brought only about 10 percent of the students out to vote. However, computer records show fewer than 600...
(Left to right) Shyane Maestra, Shelly Weir and Christina Dryden protest what they say is animal cruelty going on at the Carson & Barnes 5-Ring Circus on Monday at the Curry County Fairgrounds. CNJ staff photo: Mike Linn. Visitors to the Carson & Barnes 5-Ring Circus got an unexpected sight at the gate Monday night — a woman pretending to use a bull hook to beat her daughter, who was dressed up as a circus elephant. Three other women held protest signs. “Until animal acts are out of circuses the violence will not sto... Full story
About 11 a.m. Wednesday, agents of the Region 5 Drug Task Force converged on a home at the 500 block of Tennessee with an arrest warrant. A woman drove away from the home in a green Dodge truck as officers approached, and officers stopped the vehicle on the grounds that they believed the woman was attempting to avoid task force agents. A search of the vehicle revealed two marijuana cigarettes; the woman admitted they belonged to her and she was cited for possession of marijuana. • • • While searching for suspects in an armed... Full story
