Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Sentencing for a Clovis man charged with five counts of manufacturing child pornography was postponed on Tuesday because his lawyer did not receive a diagnostic evaluation in time to schedule witnesses to testify on his behalf.
Rocky Fleming, 41, a staff sergeant at Cannon Air Force Base, is scheduled to be sentenced Friday after pleading guilty to charges that he videotaped and photographed minors performing sexual acts at his home at 1509 Brentwood Drive.
He faces between five and 45 years in prison.
He was originally charged with 97 counts of sexual exploitation of children and two counts of hiring an underage teen for prostitution, magistrate court records show. Fleming accepted a plea agreement that reduced the number of sexual exploitation charges to five.
Deputy District Attorney Bryan McKay’s last day with the prosecutor’s office will be Friday, and District Judge Stephen Quinn granted his request to have the hearing before he left.
“The judge had no choice (but to postpone the hearing),” McKay said. “(But Fleming) needs to be sentenced. It needs to be finalized.”
Jim Wilson, Fleming’s court-appointed attorney, told the court he didn’t receive Fleming’s psychological evaluation until Monday, although McKay received the evaluation much sooner.
Fleming is accused of paying three girls — ages 13, 15 and 16 — up to $2,000 to have sex with themselves or another man in a span of about four months dating back to last summer, Clovis police said. He is alleged to have lured the females via a Yahoo Internet New Mexico chat site, police said.
Fleming was arrested on May 12 and has been incarcerated in the Curry County Detention ever since.
Capt. Andre Kok of Cannon Public Affairs said Fleming is still a staff sergeant at Cannon. He said the Air Force is aware of Fleming’s guilty plea, and at some point the military will make a decision on his future in the Air Force.
