Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Sorted by date Results 176 - 200 of 798
PORTALES — Police on Tuesday announced they had obtained arrest warrants on four people in connection to a recent ongoing Portales homicide investigation. Three were in custody that afternoon and the only one still at large was arrested that evening. Court documents describe the April 7 shooting death of Adam “Florida’ Holts as an armed robbery turned deadly, with two young men charged with 1st-degree murder and two other people charged with conspiracy to commit armed robbery. Manuel Silva, 23, and Korbin Baldridge, 19, ... Full story
PORTALES — In their meeting Tuesday morning, Roosevelt County commissioners got a hands-on, abstract illustration of the sort of work correctional officers do at the local detention center. Roosevelt County Jail Administrator Justin Porter stood beside three detention officers while presenting to the commission on a proclamation declaring the first full week of next month as “National Correctional Employees Week.” The officers passed out individual bottles of soda to the commissioners and county staff, with Porter asking each...
Editor’s note: Warning to readers: The following story contains graphic accounts. CLOVIS — A Clovis man was arrested Friday on felony animal cruelty charges from an investigation that started late last year. John Davis, 63, was charged in January with extreme cruelty to animals and tampering with evidence, both fourth-degree felonies, and five additional misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals. He entered no plea Monday on all counts and was released that evening on an unsecured appearance bond. In an arrest warrant aff...
CLOVIS — In a lifetime of nearly a century Louis Yarborough Jr. dedicated over half that time as a civic leader, youth coach and family man in Clovis, where he “never met a stranger.” Yarborough passed last month in Lubbock just five days short of his 98th birthday. He had spent the past 15 years in Texas but for much of the 53 years prior lived in Clovis, where he bought a sporting good store after retiring from the oil business in Midland. Before that, he grew up in Freestone County of east Texas and was an athlete at Amari...
PORTALES - What was once Douglas and Cheryl Walker's home now looks like "another planet" after the fire. That was the latter's impression after visiting their scorched land Thursday as residents continue to take stock of the disaster in the area a day earlier. At least three people were injured, four homes were lost and 1,800 acres were burnt Wednesday in eastern New Mexico as strong winds once again ripped through the region. Much of the damage was in Roosevelt County,...
PORTALES — Police on Friday requested public assistance in locating two “persons of interest” in connection with their homicide investigation from the weekend prior. Police responded around 1 a.m. April 7 to the 400 block of Portales’ North Avenue B “regarding an individual that had been shot,” according to a news release. That individual was identified as Adam Holts, 35. By Friday, officials said they had not yet identified any suspects but that Portales Police Department and the region's Major Crimes Unit were “continuing...
SANTA FE — The state’s chief law enforcement official last week issued a letter advising officials of “second amendment sanctuaries” that they can still be held liable if they refuse to enforce recently signed gun legislation. In the April 4 letter, Attorney General Hector Balderas referred broadly to the “number of law enforcement officials in New Mexico” that said they would not enforce Senate Bill 8, which was signed into law March 8 by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and becomes effective July 1. The new law would require a ...
Ask — or at least ask modestly — and it shall be granted. That was one takeaway for eastern New Mexico communities following the governor’s approval Friday of almost $12 million in capital outlay requests within Curry, Roosevelt and Quay Counties. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed Senate Bill 280, which was approved by both chambers of the state legislature last month. The final version keeps intact each of the capital outlay requests from Clovis, Portales and surrounding communities, including about $2.44 million and $1.2...
CLOVIS — The New Mexico Environment Department has scheduled a public meeting this month in Clovis concerning the local water contamination linked last year to firefighting exercises at Cannon Air Force Base. Hosted in conjunction with the state’s Attorney General office and Departments of Health and Agriculture, the meeting will also present more information on recent testing conducted by NMED. Results from tests last month on public water systems on and immediately outside the base were posted online Wednesday, ind...
ALBUQUERQUE — Hearing objections from other applicants, a judge on Thursday declined to rule on a motion to dismiss the lawsuit that last year halted the racino award selection process. If new objections from other applicants are taken to heart, the process might stretch much longer yet. The New Mexico Racing Commission, previously poised to announce in December which of five applicants would receive the state’s sixth racing license, delayed that decision following a petition for injunctive relief filed Nov. 28 in the 2nd...
ALBUQUERQUE — Citing objections from other applicants, a judge on Thursday declined to rule on a motion to dismiss the lawsuit that last year halted the racino award selection process, according to state officials. The New Mexico Racing Commission, previously poised to announce in December which of five applicants would receive the state’s sixth and final racing license, delayed that decision following a petition for injunctive relief filed Nov. 28 in the 2nd Judicial District. That suit, filed by Hidalgo Downs, LLC and other...
PORTALES - The Roosevelt County Commission on Tuesday approved updates to its ordinance on ethical conduct, which creates a local ethics board and streamlines some communication avenues among public servants. Commissioners voted 4-1 in favor of the ordinance, with Tina Dixon abstaining. She said she wanted more time to think on the updates, remarking there was "way too much in there" and that the changes seemed to disempower commissioners in favor of the county manager. Dixon...
CLOVIS - A man convicted last month of voluntary manslaughter was sentenced Monday to six years in prison. Darryl Turner, 31, of Clovis, received the maximum sentence in the Department of Corrections for the Sept. 5, 2017, shooting death of David McDonald at the Clovis Apartments. A Curry County jury had the option Feb. 28 of acquittal or a conviction for either second-degree murder or manslaughter and chose the latter following a trial and brief deliberation. Turner was...
U.S. Sen. Tom Udall announced Monday he would not seek re-election for a third term in 2020. In eastern New Mexico, local representatives supported his decision and applauded his service to their communities. "His experience will be missed, but it will be a good opportunity to fill that seat," Portales Mayor Ron Jackson told The News. "He's been instrumental in helping us with our Ute Water project; we'll probably miss his expertise in that matter." Jackson said he was proud o...
CLOVIS — Felony charges against a bounty hunter accused of kidnapping a subject from Clovis in 2017 were dropped just days in advance of a trial this week after an alleged victim signed an “affidavit of non-prosecution.” Bradley Smith, 40, of Lubbock, was among three bondsmen charged last year with kidnapping, aggravated burglary and extortion in connection with what local police said was the unlawful extradition in April 2017 of one Jared Baca, a man allegedly wanted then on misdemeanor charges out of Ford County, Kansa...
CLOVIS — A panel of district attorneys has completed its review of the officer-involved deadly force incident last year in Clovis but has yet to forward its recommendations to the local prosecutor. 11th Judicial District Attorney Rick Tedrow, liaison for the panel system used in reviewing such incidents statewide, said prosecutors met March 14-15th in Santa Fe to discuss two cases before them. Among those was the Oct. 8 incident in which Clovis Police officer Brent Aguilar shot Aaron Chavez to death south of the Prince Street...
PORTALES — City residents have until April 4 to weigh in on the expansion of existing tax funds for economic development in Portales. Ordinance No. 737, the only item on the city’s first mail-in only ballot for a special election in years, does not increase taxes but broadens their use. Adopted in January by the Portales city council, the ordinance “amends existing code to expand the uses of Local Economic Development Act (LEDA) funds that assist the community in attracting businesses into Portales or improving busin...
CLOVIS — Cannon Air Force Base is among military installations across the country and overseas that could lose project funding in favor of President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall. Both of New Mexico’s U.S. senators denounced that potential threat to military construction projects in the state while a Department of Defense spokesman said it was too early to speculate on which locations might be impacted. Some $42 million toward building a new combat arms training and maintenance (CATM) facility and cargo pad area at Ca...
PORTALES — Among items emerging from the state Legislature discussed in Tuesday’s Roosevelt County Commission meeting, those pertaining to roads and jails were emphasized for improvements they could bring to local services. In her county manager update, Amber Hamilton said “this really was a year for roads” when discussing House Bill 2, the general appropriation act of 2019, which passed the state Senate March 13. “We’re expecting a spike in what’s available there,” she added, noting the county took a fiscally conser...
The windy season is upon us. Sustained 50-mph winds, with gusts near 80 mph, blew across the region on Wednesday, creating widespread outages and property damage. A power company lineman was killed while working Wednesday evening in Hereford, but remarkably there were no major injuries reported in Curry, Roosevelt or Quay counties - even as the wind blew a train down into a ravine that same day near Logan. It was a superlative event even for people long accustomed to the regio...
CLOVIS - A Clovis man found guilty last year of his eighth intoxicated driving offense was sentenced Tuesday to the maximum of 12 years in the Department of Corrections. Randall Pruit, 55, apologized to the court and asked repeatedly for mercy from Judge Fred Van Soelen. He said he's "not the same guy" he was in years past, referring to the judge's enumeration of seven previous DWI convictions between 1990 and 2009. "You've seen me around town, sir, I've gone to shake your...
CLOVIS — First he drew the curtains, then he drew the gun. That’s when Sandra Reyna knew the masked man who walked into her salon Friday afternoon was there for money, not a hair appointment. “I thought somebody was joking with me at first,” she told The News. “I said, ‘Come on, get out.’” Reyna has run the business adjoining her home in northwest Clovis four days a week for about 10 years and never had any issues. That’s until last week anyway, when she was seeing to a client and a young man entered and locked the door b...
CLOVIS — A Clovis man was sentenced Monday to 16 years in prison through a plea agreement involving three cases originating almost exactly a year earlier. Brandon Wagner, 33, pleaded no contest to two counts of aggravated assault on a healthcare worker, a third-degree felony. According to court records, Wagner returned days late from a court-approved furlough in late March of 2018 and during intake was seen swallowing an item of contraband that he’d concealed in his person. He was taken to a hospital bed in the Intensive Car...
CLOVIS — Rape charges against three local airmen charged early last year with raping a colleague in Clovis will be dropped by the 9th Judicial District Attorney, according to a news release. Andrea Reeb said her office would drop charges of second-degree criminal sexual penetration against Cannon Air Force Base airmen Thomas Newton, 25, Isaiah Edley, 20, and Rahman Buchanan, 19, citing recent forensic evidence results from serology testing by the state’s crime lab. “I have reached the conclusion that the State would be unabl...
CLOVIS - It may be little surprise that recent gun control legislation signed Friday by the governor found little support that same day at the Clovis Evening Lions Club gun show, concluding today at the civic center. One Curry County commissioner on Friday wondered if this would be one of the last such gun shows in the the Land of Enchantment, following word that Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham had only hours earlier signed Senate Bill 8 expanding the requirements for background...
