Two jailed in Muleshoe woman's death

Police believe a Muleshoe woman was killed early Tuesday morning because her assailants feared she would report them for crimes she may have witnessed.

Keith Cordova, 22, and Francisco Bustamante, 24, both are charged with murder in connection with her slaying in rural Roosevelt County.

Records show Jaime Edgmon, 41, was killed about sunrise Tuesday morning, approximately six hours after she may have witnessed a shooting in the vicinity of 10th and Pile streets in Clovis.

Surveillance video from the area shows the first shooting take place, then a suspect goes inside a residence. Less than a minute later, the suspect, Edgmon and two others emerge from the residence, get into Edgmon's car and leave the area.

"My impression is ... they shot her because she had witnessed that first shooting," District Attorney Andrea Reeb said on Saturday.

A woman in the car with Edgmon, Cordova and Bustamante told police that Edgmon was texting on her phone, which made the men "paranoid" that she was telling someone about the initial shooting.

That initial shooting, which police believe was drug-related, took place soon after midnight on Tuesday. Clovis police officers responded to a report of gunfire in the 200 block of West 14th Street. While investigating, police said in a news release "a vehicle pulled in behind the Officers. A 29-year old male subject stepped out of the vehicle, walked toward the Officers and relayed he had been shot ... multiple times."

The man, Juan Aguirre-Marquez, was transported to Plains Regional Medical Center and then to a hospital in Lubbock. He told police that Cordova had shot him near the area of 10th and Pile.

That incident led police to arrest Cordova and Bustamante on Tuesday afternoon.

While police questioned the suspects about the midnight shooting, Reeb said Cordova "keeps talking about this missing girl and saying he wasn't the one who shot her. Police didn't even know (the Muleshoe woman) was missing at this point."

Reeb said Cordova led officers to Edgmon's body, near the Bonestroo Dairy southwest of Portales on NM 467.

Cordova and Bustamante both face multiple charges in connection with both shooting incidents. Both were in the Curry County Detention Center on Saturday.

A longtime friend of Edgmon told The News Saturday she couldn't understand why anybody would ever harm her.

Rachelle Roberts said she and Edgmon were neighbors in Louisiana and their husbands were serving in the military, and they became fast friends in 2003 when they met on a neighborhood walk.

Edgmon, Roberts said, was later divorced and supported herself and her son through her cleaning business.

"She would do anything for a friend or a stranger, and everyone loved her," Roberts said, noting Edgmon had a contagious laugh and a smile that could brighten a room. "We are devastated by her death, and cannot comprehend why someone would do this to her."

- Editor Kevin Wilson contributed to this report.