Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
1. A Portales man was sentenced to 44 years in prison, but continued to claim he was innocent of the rape charges a jury said he committed.
Roy Brown, 28, said he felt bad for the woman who had been attacked, but “I can’t sit here and say I’m sorry for something I didn’t do.”
Prosecutors said DNA evidence proved Brown was guilty.
A Roosevelt County Sheriff’s deputy who investigated the case called it “the most horrific, disgusting crime I’ve ever investigated.”
2. Clovis police still did not explain how a suicidal criminal suspect was able to get a gun into the Curry County jail on Feb. 1, but public records shed some light on the situation.
Dispatcher logs show police were called in reference to a man threatening to kill himself who had “stolen several weapons.”
Wesley Flores, 28, was soon arrested at a home on Jonquil Park Drive and taken to the jail by Clovis police.
Curry County officials identified the officer who brought Flores into the jail as Sanford Wagner, but police have not said whether Wagner was responsible for searching Flores for a weapon.
Flores pulled a gun from his clothing moments after arriving at the jail and began a four-hour standoff with police. The incident ended when Flores shot himself in the jaw. At last report he was in critical condition in a Lubbock hospital.
3. Law officers on Tuesday discovered two bodies believed to be those of a Bovina couple missing since Jan. 19.
The bodies were found on remote ranchland in Chaves County about two miles from a pickup in which Rosendo and Hortencia Lara were last seen.
Officials said Rosendo Lara, 81, suffered from dementia and family members said his wife, 84, also “gets confused.”
4. Curry County jail Administrator Mark Gallegos received a $6,300 pay raise, to $90,000 per year.
“What Mr. Gallegos has accomplished is what no other administrator has been able to accomplish at our facility,” County Manager Lance Pyle wrote in a memo to county commissioners, who unanimously approved the salary hike.
Commissioner Chet Spear cited a new jail accreditation from the state and said Gallegos, who came to the county two years ago, is “worth every penny.”
5. A Fort Sumner restaurant in business 40 years closed its doors on Feb. 3.
Fred’s Restaurant owners Fred and Ron Gauna told customers they did not have “the business or the crew to keep Fred’s running” anymore.
Fred Guana opened Fred’s Bar in 1968, then converted it into a restaurant a decade later. His son Ron became the restaurant manager in 1985.
It’s been in the same location on Sumner Avenue since 1981.
— “5 things ...” is compiled by Staff of The News
