According to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday in Carlsbad Magistrate Court, earlier that day Eddy County Sheriff's Department investigators interviewed a female detention center inmate who reported having sex at the jail with a detention officer, identified as Moore, on two different occasions.<< MORE >>

Funktional Addict

New release "Climate Control".   The group is looking for a new lead singer.  Contact The Carlsbad Channel for details.


                   


Click below to listen or to download this great new track.

Download | Duration: 00:05:38

ARTESIA — An Artesia man died early Friday morning after suffering "several cut-type injuries" at a residence, police said.

At 2 a.m. officers from the Artesia Police Department were sent to 502 S. Third St. in Artesia in response to reports of a woman screaming in the area.

When they arrived, they found Jason Valencia, 21, with several cut-type injuries to his body. Valencia was taken by ambulance to the Artesia General Hospital where he later died.

Witness statements led officers to the area of 800 S. Second St., where they located 22-year-old Jesus Gutierrez, of the 800 block of South Second Street. Witnessses described a violent struggle which led to Valencia being injured and ultimately dying from his wounds.

Gutierrez was taken into custody at about 3:35 a.m. and is being charged with an open count of murder at the Artesia Detention Center.

Search warrants are being secured for the residences on Second and Third streets as well as the person of Gutierrez for evidence related to the crime.

The incident is believed to be based on a marital relationship and living arrangements, Artesia police spokesman Sgt. Lindell Smith said.

A bond has not been set for Gutierrez. If found guilty of first degree murder, he faces up to life in prison. He will be arraigned later today or early next week and will enter his initial plea then.

A resident with information about any crime should call 911 if it is in progress. To report a crime that has already occurred

WASHINGTON — The National Park Service is looking to stimulate summer vacations at national parks. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Tuesday that entrance fees at 147 national parks and monuments - including the Grand Canyon and Yosemite - will be waived on three weekends this summer. The weekends are June 20-21, July 18-19 and August 15-16. "During these tough economic times, our national parks provide opportunities for affordable vacations for families," Salazar said at a news conference at Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio. "I encourage everyone to visit one of our nation's crown jewels this summer and especially to take advantage of the three free-admission weekends." Most Americans live less than a day's drive from a national park, Salazar said. Carlsbad Caverns National Park, some 27 miles south of Carlsbad, and Guadalupe Mountains National Park - a 57-mile drive from Carlsbad and located along U.S. 62-180 - are two parks in the immediate region visited by tourists from around the globe as well as from around the U.S. << MORE >>

Mark Hopkins is an emergency room doctor at Carlsbad Medical Center, while Sharon Hopkins is the owner of My Favorite New Mexico Foods LLC, which manufactures and sells traditional New Mexico foods. According to a U.S. Department of Justice news release, the indictment charges that the Hopkinses have failed to file personal income tax returns since 1997 and owe the IRS more than $1.3 million. According to the indictment, the couple has had a taxable annual income of at least $260,000 per year since 2002. The couple is accused of acting to conceal their assets from the IRS, the release states. Among the steps taken, Mark Hopkins allegedly instructed his employer, a staffing company, to make checks to him, totaling more than $3 million, payable to a sham entity called "Shalom Enterprises." The couple allegedly conspired to impede the IRS by using a total of nine such sham entities to conceal their identities, identifying the entities as "pure trusts" and naming relatives and friends as trust beneficiaries to conceal their income, bank accounts << MORE >>

On-scene investigation has revealed that Walker's vehicle was attempting to make a left turn onto Derrick Road when it was struck T-bone fashion by Jones' vehicle. Both vehicles then traveled southwest before coming to rest on the west shoulder of the roadway. Jones and her two passengers, Sue Sheppard, 13, and Tomie Sheppard, 11, both of Carlsbad, were checked for injuries at the scene by emergency medical personnel. Jones and Sue Sheppard were released with no injuries, while Tomie Sheppard was taken to the Carlsbad Medical Center emergency room for further evaluation, the news release stated. Due to the severity of their injuries, Walker and Dunn, the occupants of the Nova, were taken to Carlsbad << MORE >>

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Gunman have attacked a convoy carrying the governor of a violence-wracked border state, killing one of his bodyguards and wounding two other agents.

It was not clear if the attackers were targeting Chihuahua Gov. Jose Reyes Baeza, but he canceled a trip Monday to meet with federal officials in Mexico City about security problems in his state, where hundreds have died in drug-related violence in recent months.

Baeza said gunmen in two cars fired high-powered weapons at a vehicle two cars behind his in a convoy in the state capital, Chihuahua city, on Sunday night. The two wounded agents were in stable condition on Monday and one of the attackers was hospitalized with a gunshot to the head. The other attackers fled.

The governor told a news conference shortly before midnight Sunday that he doesn't know if the attackers were aiming for him: ''We don't want to speculate.''

But rich, heavily armed gangs battling for turf on the doorstep of the U.S. narcotics market have increasingly challenged the government on all levels, even ambushing troops sent to battle the cartels.

The convoy attack came two days after the police chief of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua's biggest city, bowed to crime gang demands to resign because they threatened to kill at least one of his officers every 48 hours.

Reyes Baeza asked federal officials to investigate because he said the assailants fired high-powered weapons that Mexican law

says can only be used by the military.

Federal officials say more than 6,000 people died in drug-related violence across Mexico last year, and no state suffered more than Chihuahua. Ciudad Juarez alone recorded 1,600 killings.

From The Associated Press.

Based on the evidence collected, Samaniego was charged with giving alcohol to a minor, a fourth-degree felony, and criminal sexual penetration in the second-degree, committed during the commission of a felony. He pleaded not guilty to the charges Friday before Judge Henry Castañeda, who ordered him held on a $50,000 secured bond and scheduled a preliminary examination for 1:30 p.m. Jan. 23. The Current-Argus was unsuccessful in attempts to reach officials with the U.S. Border Patrol for comment on this case. << MORE >>

CARLSBAD — A drug raid Thursday netted the largest seizure of crack cocaine to date in the area. The bust also resulted in the arrest of two key figures in the crack cocaine trade in Eddy County and southeastern New Mexico, officials of the Pecos Valley Drug Task Force said Monday.

 

Arrested were Jaime Martinez, 31, and Jennifer Dorado, 26, both of the 2400 block of Utah Street.

"They were two major players in the organization responsible for distributing cocaine and crack cocaine in Eddy County," said task force Commander David Edmondson.

According to a task force news release, at approximately 6:15 p.m. on Dec. 11, task force agents, assisted by officers of the Carlsbad Police Department and the Eddy County Sheriff's Department, executed a search warrant at the residence at 2409 Utah. There authorities seized 460 grams of crack cocaine, 239 grams of powder cocaine, packaging materials, cooking equipment and other manufacturing equipment. In addition, $4,712 in currency, three shotguns, four semi-automatic rifles, one assault weapon and one handgun were also seized.

Martinez and Dorado were arraigned Friday in U.S. Federal Court in Roswell, charged with knowingly and intentionally conspiring to possess, with intent to distribute, 460 grams or more of crack cocaine and possession of a weapon in the furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. into drug trafficking in the region. Task force agents are continuing the investigation and additional arrests are expected.

"This investigation was ongoing for a year, and we're still not done with this organization," said Edmondson.

If convicted, each faces a maximum possible penalty of life imprisonment.

The raid came after a year-long investigation

CARLSBAD - Vandals struck a public art display outside the Carlsbad Museum and Art Center sometime late Saturday or early Sunday, barely a week after it had been installed in an exhibit slated to run through December.

The untitled work depicted the moon suspended within a protective bamboo structure and was positioned near the main entrance to the museum.
"This was a full-scale act of vandalism," said museum director Virginia Dodier. "For me, the contrast is between seeing this toppled over and what it had looked like when the artists finished installing it."
Dodier has called on the community to set the example that this kind of vandalism will not be tolerated in Carlsbad.