Year in Review: Library shooting tops tragic year

When historians look back on 2017 in eastern New Mexico, they almost certainly will mark it as a year marred more than most by violence and tragedy.

The year saw a usual number of accidents and homicides, but also some of the more high-profile deaths in more than a century: a military plane crash that killed three, a drowning in a city park, a young child's death in a scorching vehicle, and a deadly mass shooting in a public library.

National media took interest in the region more than once in 2017, but never more than after the Aug. 28 library shooting that killed two and sent four to the hospital.

The accused shooter, 16-year old Nathaniel Ray Jouett, surrendered himself to police when they arrived within minutes after shots were reported.

Children's librarian Krissie Carter, 48, and circulation assistant Wanda Walters, 61, both well-known and beloved by library patrons, were killed during the incident.

Those injured were a 10-year old boy and his older sister, another circulation assistant and a man who only moved to the city less than a year earlier. After being hospitalized in Lubbock, they were all released after a few weeks.

"On August 28, it put me into shock," said Howard Jones, 54, who still attends thrice-weekly physical therapy appointments for the gunshot damage to his left arm.

"From what I'd seen when I first moved up here (in December 2016), it seemed like a nice, quiet little town. Like it didn't have any problems."

Jones said he visited the Clovis-Carver Public Library regularly with his two preteen children since moving from southern California. They enjoyed browsing the books and DVDs together.

"My kids were in the library with me when it happened," he said, speaking publicly about the event for the first time this month. "I heard the shooting, and I looked at them and I told them, I said 'You guys have never listened to me before, but you are going to listen to me very well now. You will run like hell, you will not look back and you will hide.' And they did what I said, but by the time I turned around to see where the shooter was at, he was standing right in front of me."

Jones said the gunman shot him just as he was hoisting his arm over his chest. The bullet entered his forearm and grazed along its length, passing his elbow and stopping in his shoulder. It badly damaged a nerve, limiting Jones' mobility with the arm, hand and fingers.

He said therapy the past few months appears to be helping.

"I've always told all of my kids, that no matter what I'd take a bullet for them," he said. "Now I've lived that, and I'd do it again."

Jouett, who turns 17 next month, told police he had contemplated the shooting "for a long while" and had first intended to target the high school but ended up at the library by chance.

He said he didn't target anyone there specifically, only that he was "mad at everyone" and that he "was angry and was either going to kill himself or a bunch of people," court records show.

A post to his Snapchat account at 4:10 p.m. that day appeared to come from inside the library bathroom, minutes before opening fire with two guns taken from his father's safe.

The day before, he left the Sunday morning service at Living Word Church of God after suffering "anxiety attacks," pastors said. He was back that evening at the church, which he had attended faithfully the previous few months and where pastors said he appeared to be making strides from a hard life background.

The day after the shooting, District Andrea Reeb announced she would seek adult sanctions for Jouett and charge him with two counts of first-degree murder, among other crimes.

Jouett's defense attorney Stephen Taylor, who has previously represented children charged with killing people, said he will attempt to see that Jouett qualify for an amenability hearing to determine if he would be receptive to treatment by the state through his early 20s. In New Mexico, an amenability hearing is only an option if a jury fails to convict Jouett of first-degree murder. If he is convicted on either first-degree murder charge, he faces life in prison.

Reeb and Taylor agreed this month that a trial was not likely to take place until early 2019 and might last a full month, given the number of witnesses involved.

In the weeks following the shooting, two incidents of widespread threats of violence to schools, businesses and other public entities throughout Clovis came in through cryptic phone calls, some of which claimed an association with Jouett. None of those threats of violence appeared to materialize, and officials speculated they were the work of opportunistic fearmongers. Police said they are still hopeful to find the person or persons responsible for those threats.

In October, a Clovis High School student posted messages on Snapchat threatening to shoot up the school, addressing certain CHS staff by name and appearing to reference Jouett. After violating a subsequent court order not to access any electronic devices, she accepted a plea agreement wherein she entered two years of supervised probation. During that time she is not to access social media and is required to perform community service and make a public apology.

She was not charged in connection with the telephone threats that immediately followed the shootings.

A fund collected from within the community to serve those needs of the library victims unmet by state aid has generated more than $30,000 so far, of which all but some $5,000 was distributed as of this month.

The library was closed for only a couple of weeks after the incident, quietly re-opening in mid-September after hiring some new staff and cleaning up the space. Staff are still discussing ideas for a memorial to honor Carter and Walters.

Regarding the library shooting, Clovis Police Department Capt. Roman Romero said the following this month:

"This event affected everyone in Clovis, but our community showed its resilience and ability to work through this horrible time. Our department and our town emerged from this ordeal, more determined and robust. Together, as a community, we chose to show the world that we would not allow an individual's vile act to define us. ... Your Clovis Police Department is stronger, because we have a strong and supportive public. Without this cooperation, we would not be as effective as we are. We are lucky to have Clovis as our home."

But it wasn't just the library shooting that hit the region hard this year.

Crash from Cannon

The first major public tragedy of the year occurred March 14, when three airmen from Cannon Air Force Base died in a plane crash near the Clovis Municipal Airport. Capt. Andrew Becker, Capt. Kenneth Dalga and First Lt. Frederick Dellecker died after their U-28A aircraft crashed during a training exercise in which they practiced approaches and landings south of the airport.

The tragedy prompted a community #cannonstrong solidarity movement to show support for the grieving families and other service members. That hashtag was resurrected as #clovisstrong more than five months later after the mass shooting in the library.

A report issued in September by the U.S. Air Force Aircraft Accident Investigation Board attributed the crash to "human factors," from the plane being overcontrolled or undercontrolled. It did not specify which of the airmen was controlling the plane but said there were no indications of mechanical malfunctions related to the $18.3 million aircraft.

Cannon's Wing Commander Col. Stewart Hammons said emergency training procedures were adjusted following findings from the investigation.

Child drowns in city park

Independence Day in Clovis was off to a good start for Gevion Lewis, 12, who was playing in Hillcrest Park with his little brother and a few friends. They were swimming in the dark green waters of a kidney-shaped pond on the east end of the park when the situation quickly turned dire.

A friend later told police he saw Lewis struggling in the middle of the pond and crying for help before going under. The children attempted to help him but soon alerted a man walking his dog nearby to call in the emergency.

A swift response from Clovis police, firefighters and Emergency Medical Service officials ensued. Gevion was located almost as soon as the first rescuer set out into the opaque water, some 20 feet toward the middle of the pond and at the bottom of its 7- or 8-foot depth.

But the fast response wasn't fast enough. Police estimated the child was under the water anywhere from six to 10 minutes. He was transported by ambulance directly from the pond to a hospital in Lubbock, where he remained in critical condition and never regained consciousness. After his 13th birthday and several days without any sign of brain activity, he was removed from a respirator and died July 15.

In September, lawyers for Gevion's parents filed a civil suit against the city for "failing to actively identify all dangerous conditions of the park for the safety of the general public."

The complaint for wrongful death, filed in the 2nd Judicial District Court, seeks damages "for an amount to be determined" by a jury in a trial yet to be scheduled.

Daycare owners charged in death

Mother-daughter daycare duo Mary and Sandi Taylor face trial late next year, charged with leaving two toddlers in a hot vehicle for about 90 minutes during the peak of the Portales summer.

Temperatures approached 100 degrees on July 25, when an afternoon at the in-home daycare Taylor's Tots turned deadly.

Investigators said the Taylors took 12 children to a local park for lunch, then left behind two of them in their car seats inside an SUV upon their return around 3:30 p.m. that day.

It was only when Sandi Taylor, 31, returned to the car after 5 p.m. to retrieve some paperwork that she discovered the two girls slumped over in their seats.

Maliyah Jones, 22 months, was pronounced dead on arrival at Roosevelt General Hospital. Aubriauna Loya, now 2, was transported in critical condition to a Lubbock hospital. She has since returned home.

"Both children required assistance to be allowed out of the car seats," reads a Portales police report. "(Sandi Taylor) could not identify a reason to forget the children, skip the headcount process, or miss the children after she put the other 10 kids down for nap time."

Mary Taylor, 62, and her daughter are each charged with reckless abuse of a child resulting in death and abuse of a child resulting in great bodily harm. They agreed this month to be tried together during a trial scheduled Sept. 24-28, with two jury panels.

The daycare is closed and will not reopen, a family member said this summer.

Court records show Kristen Ashmore and Angel Loya filed a civil suit in August seeking damages for the "catastrophic and permanent injury" to their daughter Aubriauna. A jury trial in the civil case is yet to be scheduled.

Murder suspect still at large

Not every 2017 tragedy was unusual. The year had its sadly routine violent crime as well.

In the early dark hours of Tuesday, Sept. 5, police responded to a report of shots fired at the Clovis Apartments complex on the 1000 block of North Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

There they say David McDonald, 30, suffered a gunshot that traversed his right shoulder, went through his lung and stopped at his heart. Personnel at Plains Regional Medical Center attempted life-saving measures but declared him dead just before 3:30 a.m.

Two eyewitnesses told police they recognized the shooter as 30-year old Darryl Turner II, a friend of another resident at the apartments, according to court documents. That friend, who is not charged in connection with the crime, told police Turner woke her up and demanded to be driven to the home of one of his cousins. On her return she found police cars outside her building.

Her last reported message from Turner said "I am sorry but these people kept picking on me," records show.

Officials identified Turner as their suspect and issued an arrest warrant for him on an open count of murder.

That homicide is still under investigation, Romero said Dec. 21, and court and jail records showed no signs of Turner's appearance locally since the killing.

Clovis cop shooter to prison

Anthony Baca, 35, convicted in May for shooting a Clovis police officer in August 2016, racked up enough additional sentences this year to bring his potential commitment in the Department of Corrections to 34 1/2 years.

Almost half of that time — 15 years — came for inflicting a grazing gunshot wound onto an officer last year during a foot pursuit that started with a late-night traffic stop. The officer recovered and is back in service. Baca is required to serve 85 percent of that sentence before becoming eligible for parole.

The remaining 19 1/2 years to his cumulative sentence come from four other cases: 2 1/2 years each for an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon conviction and a guilty plea to a felony failure to appear charge, 4 1/2 years for possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia, assault upon a peace officer and resisting an officer, and 10 years for a conviction in October of robbery, aggravated battery and possession of a controlled substance.

On those charges, Baca may be eligible for parole after serving 50 percent of his sentence. All of his sentences are to be served consecutively.

Jury acquits in cold case

At the end of November, over two years after his arrest, a 12-person jury found William Hadix not guilty of the 2003 shooting death of Jessie Clyde "J.C." Tucker in Clovis, with the jury foreman stating they did not have enough evidence to convict.

Prosecutors alleged Hadix, 69, shot Tucker dead for his money the afternoon of Sept. 4, 2003. Their principal testimony came from Telia Vancleave, who told the court she saw her godfather Hadix point a gun at Tucker outside the victim's automobile sales and salvage yard west of Clovis. Tucker's fiancee found him dead that evening in a pool of blood inside his office.

Investigators said they spoke to more than 100 people concerning the death of the man who was widely known to carry thousands of dollars in cash. Hadix was among those interviewed early on, but he wasn't arrested until after Vancleave's brother Cory told police in 2015 that Hadix had confessed to him the killing.

By then, Hadix had long since relocated to Illinois. After his arrest, Telia Vancleave told investigators what she saw when she was a 15-year-old living with Hadix, her brothers and her mother in a mobile home in Clovis. She said a fear of Hadix compelled her to stay silent until her brother came forward.

Come trial, Cory Vancleave had "absconded from probation," leaving much of the state's case to lean on his sister's emotional testimony. After three days of trial and 90 minutes of deliberation, jury foreman Jamaal Williams told The News they were moved by Vancleave's story but did not find her a sufficiently credible witness to send Hadix to prison.

Plea deals for incest, park stabbing

Two plea deals in 2017 resolved cases started in years prior, with a mother-son duo pleading no contest to incest charges from 2016 and a man confessing to the slaying of a young mother in a public park in 2014.

Monica Mares, 37, and her adult son Caleb Peterson were arrested in February 2016 and accused of having a sexual relationship with one another. They were both charged with third-degree incest and faced up to three years in jail and $5,000 in fines. Records show Peterson, 21, grew up without Mares but reconnected with her after he turned 18.

In March of this year, before the case reached trial, they both agreed to a plea deal wherein they commenced three years of probation and were forbidden from leaving the state or contacting each other for the first half of that time. The charges can be dropped from their records if they successfully complete probation.

The following month, courts brought to close a violent case originating Nov. 9, 2014. It was on that date investigators say Matthew Jennings stabbed 23-year-old Ariel Ulibarri to death while she was out with her 6-year-old son in Goodwin Lake Park.

Jennings, 28, pleaded guilty to a murder charge and was sentenced in April to life in prison — 30 years before the possibility of parole. The plea deal spared Jennings the charge of tampering with evidence (from discarding the murder weapon in the park), for which he faced up to six additional years if convicted in a jury trial.

Police said Jennings had been diagnosed with schizophrenia but was not taking medication for it at the time of the crime. District Attorney Reeb said Jennings was remorseful and insistent on facing punishment after he was jailed and medicated.