2014 year in review — Dec. 25

A brief look at some of the top stories in Roosevelt County in 2014.

Portales man pleads guilty in murder-for-hire case

Summary: Portales handyman Cody Guss of Portales was arrested in March and pleaded guilty in August for arranging to have his wife killed.

He was 36 at the time of his arrest.

According to police, Guss agreed to pay an undercover officer $5,000 to kill his wife.

The couple had been married 13 years.

Notable: Guss said in recorded phone calls that he exhausted all of his options in dealing with his wife and that he “does not like what he has to do, but he has no other solution than to kill her,” and that his wife is not “playing with a full deck.”

Quotable: “I don’t believe he’s capable of doing this. He wouldn’t hurt a fly.” — Kristi Guss a few days after her husband’s arrest

Longtime columnist retires

Summary: Former school teacher and published author Joan Clayton wrote her farewell column in February.

She began writing a religion column for the newspaper in 1993.

Quotable: “I can honestly tell you that I have gotten more joy and blessing from writing them than I can imagine you have from reading them. I will treasure these memories in my heart forever.” — Clayton