Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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CLOVIS — Two women charged in the Aug. 18 armed robbery of an elderly woman in a Clovis church parking lot have been arrested. Cherry Anaya, 43, and Jamie Vega, 36, on Wednesday entered no plea to charges of armed robbery, conspiracy to commit armed robbery and six counts of unlawful use or theft of an ATM or debit card, according to court records. Anaya and Vega were arrested Tuesday and remained in custody without bond awaiting a preliminary examination Oct. 21, according to court records. They were each charged Aug. 21 t...
CLOVIS — Mac Rowley’s time on Earth might be measured in his thousands of photographs, or in the thousands of lives he touched — patients, students and a large, close-knit family of professionals. Dr. Milton Rowley specialized in plastic surgery, which he practiced over 40 years in Lubbock, the nearest place for his career to his hometown of Clovis. Much of the rest of the family stayed on the New Mexico side of the border, but they convened in Clovis often for holidays. Mac would usually be the one to take the group photo...
CLOVIS - It's not a job for any dog. The 9th Judicial District already knows that, having tried once to bring a canine assistant into its courts. Kasey, a white retriever, lives now with a prosecutor in the district, but before that he was intended to assist in a therapeutic capacity for individuals testifying or giving safe house interviews. Kasey turned out to be more excitable than the sober-minded conditions of the court would require of him. Darwin will instead be that...
CLOVIS — Money raised selling donuts and collecting registration fees that was intended for baseball uniforms may have gone instead toward tires, electric bills and other personal expenses of two former Zia Little League presidents charged this month with embezzling thousands from the organization. Andrew Duran, 36 and Gabriel Montoya, 21, were arrested Friday and Monday, respectively, and each charged with third-degree felony embezzlement over $2,500. Clovis Police Det. Randy Pitcock charged Duran with embezzling $2,695 i...
CLOVIS - The last of three local jail escapees to face court this year was convicted of five felony counts Tuesday in connection with the trio's short-lived flight from the Curry County Adult Detention Center in June 2018. Ricky Sena, 26, now faces a maximum exposure between 30 and 50 years in prison in a sentencing hearing yet to be scheduled. That range includes an enhancement of either four or eight years for each felony conviction, based on whether the courts determine if...
PORTALES - Carol Morgan is still hoping her missing son will come home. But she fears it was his remains found last week inside the trunk of a burned vehicle in Roosevelt County. "I wish he would walk through the door," she said Monday, referring to her son Kristopher Morgan, 43, who has been missing since Sept. 27. "But I know my son wouldn't just go missing." Morgan said she went to her son's house last Wednesday evening and was approached by law enforcement officers. The...
PORTALES — Search warrants were in progress but sealed in the ongoing investigation of human remains found last week in the trunk of a burnt vehicle in Portales, officials said. "They did a search warrant initially on the vehicle," District Attorney Andrea Reeb told The News on Saturday. "I think everything's been sealed to protect this investigation." The 9th Judicial District's Major Crimes Unit was activated Wednesday afternoon after law officers in Roosevelt County discovered human remains in the trunk of a burnt v...
PORTALES - Carol Morgan is still hoping her missing son will come home. But she fears it was his remains found last week inside the trunk of a burned vehicle in Roosevelt County. "I wish he would walk through the door," she told The News on Monday of her son Kristopher Morgan, 43, who has been missing since Sept. 27. "But I know my son wouldn't just go missing." Morgan said she went to her son's house on Wednesday evening and was approached by law enforcement officers. The 9th... Full story
CLOVIS — Commissioners on Thursday approved the formation of a committee to evaluate five proposals for a new Essential Air Service for the city of Clovis. Their review and recommendations are scheduled to go back before the commission at its Oct. 22 meeting. Among five proposals are three that were submitted through the U.S. Dept. of Transportation’s request for proposal: Advanced Air, LLC, Sky West Airlines, Inc and Key Lime Air Corporation, doing business as Denver Air Connection. Two additional proposals were sub...
CLOVIS - Richard Sax spoke to accessibility of higher education, development of curriculum bolstering a workforce for local economic development, bridging the "opportunity gap" and playing to the strengths specific to a community. Sax participated in a public interview Tuesday night as one of five finalist candidates to be the next president of Clovis Community College. Sax is the provost and vice-president of academic affairs the University of Rio Grande and Rio Grande...
CLOVIS — They’re not the first trees to come down and they won’t be the last. City officials are pointing to the oak trees’ roots at the roots of the issue necessitating their removal from South Main Street last week. “The tree roots have caused the sidewalk to buckle and create a hazard,” City Manager Justin Howalt wrote in an email on Thursday. Those sidewalks are being replaced, part of an effort to bring them up to compliance with standards from the Americans with Disabilities Act. Similar work was completed on South Main...
PORTALES - Trends in health indicators for Roosevelt County were overall positive in the past several years, but there's still work to be done in areas like obesity, sexual health, chronic lower respiratory disease and suicide- and alcohol-related deaths. That's according to a presentation by representatives of the New Mexico Department of Health in Tuesday morning's Roosevelt County Commission meeting in Portales. Comparing statewide trends with the southeastern New Mexico...
CLOVIS — The bladed weapons were reported first as two large kitchen knives, then a sword and dagger. Police responded to five south Clovis locations in a span of as many hours Sunday morning before arresting a man armed with what they described as “a large knife made out of a table leg with an approximately foot long blade.” Jake Lopez, 46, known to some in the neighborhood as “Joey,” was charged with assault to commit a violent felony and misdemeanor attempt to commit extreme cruelty to animals. He remained in custody T...
PORTALES - An emotional week of jury trial ended Friday with the second-degree murder conviction of Gerardo Marquez for the slaying last year of Erika Zamorano, a crime prosecutors described as an "intimate killing" borne of "drugs and paranoia." Zamorano, 32, was found April 19, 2018, inside her Portales residence on the 900 block of East 2nd Street, where she lay dead from a single gunshot wound to the head for what investigators estimated to be almost 12 hours. Family becam...
PORTALES - Another easement agreement down and a few more outstanding. They all count, as discussed at Thursday's meeting of the board of the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority. The board approved an offer and easement agreement of approximately $1,800 with Carl D. Moore to run the Finished Water III pipeline through his land just south of the Curry/ Roosevelt county line. ENMWUA Administrator Orlando Ortega said last month that 16 easements had been acquired and...
CLOVIS — The figures say one thing, the residents say something else. It will take some additional review before more action can come to a stretch of road in northwest Clovis. Officials in the city’s Public Works Committee meeting on Wednesday discussed traffic control on Sandia Drive, following reports of chronic speeding motorists from residents near the road’s 500 block. Traffic Superintendent Kevin Musick gave a detailed presentation on patterns at the 100 and 300 block of the road and said the average speed there is 22...
PORTALES — Investigators are still waiting on lab results before deciding whether criminal charges will be filed in the July 27 shooting death of Derek Garcia. “We’re still sticking with the fact that anything’s possible until we hear back from what the labs say,” Roosevelt County Sheriff Malin Parker told The News on Tuesday. Parker said he “couldn’t really give ... an estimate” as to how long that might still take, but said it could be up to a year if there’s a backlog at the state crime lab in Albuquerque. Park...
PORTALES — Roosevelt County Commissioners in a brief special meeting on Monday fulfilled an annual requirement to update property tax rates imposed by the state’s Department of Finance and Administration. County Assessor George Beggs presented on the agenda item and said his office’s responsibility is to ensure there are no math mistakes in the finance department’s tax rates. Beggs told The News that rates are “about the same” and that “minor fluctuations from last year rates are normal.” House Bill 407, “which allowed...
CLOVIS — An easement agreement comes Thursday before the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority, one of several still outstanding as progress advances toward the Finished Water 3 component of the interim groundwater project. ENMWUA Administrator Orlando Ortega said the offer and easement agreement with Carl D. Moore was “one of a handful that are on our list.” Ortega told The News on Tuesday that he didn’t have the specifics of that agreement immediately available, but noted “we’ve acquired half of the easements...
PORTALES - Trial began Monday for a man charged with murder in connection with the April 19, 2018, death of Erika Zamorano in Portales. Jury selection took much of the day and ended with the designation of 10 men and four women, including two alternates. The jury heard an opening argument from prosecutors and testimony from three individuals before concluding that afternoon for the day. Gerardo Marquez, 35, faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted on a charge of...
CLOVIS - Presenters told the south Clovis residents in attendance Tuesday that their concerns with water access were not forgotten and encouraged them to keep active in letting those concerns be known. The meeting Tuesday evening, held at the Clovis-Carver Public Library's North Annex and coordinated by the Eastern Plains Council of Governments, was centered on the recent establishment of infrastructure from water utility provider EPCOR. Representative Mark Huerta spoke to...
PORTALES - There were hugs, smiles and many words of encouragement Wednesday for a cadre of aspiring educators from Portales High School. Educators Rising is a national organization established as a pipeline for students interested in becoming teachers. Locally, a new mentorship program and curriculum at PHS aims to bolster it with a mentorship program. Science department chair and freshman honors biology teacher Rebekah Mitchell leads an elective class with college credit...
PORTALES — The Roosevelt County Commission will convene in a special meeting Monday afternoon to fulfill an annual requirement of updating property tax rates imposed by the state's Dept. of Finance and Administration. County Manager Amber Hamilton on Saturday referred questions as to changes in those rates from past years to the assessor's office. Commissioners will discuss and consider the item in the 3:30 p.m. meeting at the chambers in the first floor of the county courthouse, but it's not the only item on the agenda. A...
CLOVIS — Police last week arrested one suspect in the armed nighttime burglary of a local smoke shop. Angelo Lopez, 18, of Clovis, was charged with six counts including felony aggravated burglary, battery and assault and misdemeanor impersonating a peace officer in connection with the Sept. 2 incident. Savanah Sena told The News this month that three men in the dead of night broke into her establishment on the 100 block of North Pile street, initially claiming to be Clovis police officers and then fighting with her inside w...
FORT SUMNER — A woman was charged Monday with arson and two counts of attempted murder in De Baca County and meanwhile arrested in Curry County on dozens of felony forgery accounts. Carlene Prado-Espinosa, 32, is one of “a lot of people involved” in the investigation of a Sept. 13 fire at a residence on the 600 block of Hemstreet Avenue in Fort Sumner, according to 10th Judicial District Attorney Tim Rose. She was charged Monday with three second-degree felonies: one for arson (over $20,000) and two for attempted murde...
