Editorial: Noe Torres best housed in jail outside county

On Wednesday, Ninth District Judge Donna Mowrer denied murder suspect Noe Torres' request to remain in the Curry County jail until his trial.

Instead, the longtime fugitive — arrested in Mexico in January and accused in 2005 of killing a sleeping 10-year-old Clovis boy — will be spending his pre-trial days in an unspecified state prison.

It was a good decision.

Undoubtedly most residents dismissed Torres' emotional plea to be housed in Curry County so he could be close to his legal counsel and his family. After all, how important were the ties to him since he fled from here after Carlos Perez's death seven years ago?

Freedom in Mexico was obviously more important to the fugitive than his family in the Clovis area. By Mowrer's ruling those who seek justice for Carlos' family were granted their wish that the courts keep Torres someplace where he cannot run again until he faces his accusers in court.

Curry County's jail does not have a good reputation for keeping prisoners safe and behind bars until they go to trial.

None who were here in 2008 can forget that Torres' co-defendant in Carlos' death, along with seven other prisoners, escaped out the jail's roof. And escapee Edward Salas, already convicted in Carlos' murder, has so far evaded being recaptured.

Last month, murder suspect Louis Guerra beat a cellmate with a mop handle. That beating victim was Carlos Perez' brother, Jaime Perez, who is a witness to the shooting death allegedly involving Guerra. The shooting victim was Daniel Perez, a brother to Carlos and Jaime.

It may be an inconvenience for Noe Torres to be jailed a few hundred miles away from home, but it is an inconvenience few will lose sleep over.

Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the Clovis Media Inc. editorial board, which includes Publisher Ray Sullivan and Editor David Stevens.