Roswell Daily Record THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
Murder charge dropped on technicality Vol. 123, No. 277 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
BY JEFF TUCKER RECORD STAFF WRITER
A murder charge leveled against a former Roswell man more than eight years ago has been dismissed because of the failure of local authorities to extradite him to New Mexico in a timely fashion to face charges. Fifth Judicial District Judge James Hudson on Nov. 6 granted a motion to dismiss murder and other charges against Humberto
“Tito” Figueroa. Figueroa, now 34, was indicted by a Chaves County grand jury in February 2006 on felony charges of murder, shooting at a motor vehicle resulting in great bodily har m, and tampering with evidence. The charges stemmed from the Sept. 29, 2005, murder of Christopher Najar, 30, who was fatally shot in the head while riding in a car in downtown Roswell. Figueroa is currently
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Figueroa’s public defender, Anna Marie Bell, filed a motion Oct. 8 asking Hudson to dismiss the charges against Figueroa based on the state’s violation of the Interstate Agreement on Detainers Act.
Humberto Figueroa
serving a 15-year prison sentence in Huntsville, Texas on unrelated charges.
Bell said in court papers Figueroa has been in the custody of Texas authorities since his arrest in Texas on Nov. 11, 2005. Figueroa was subsequently convicted in Texas of aggravated battery, aggravated assault on a pubic servant
Second-place poster contest winner Logan Hoover, 8, front at far left, shows off his poster about World War II next to firstplace winner Caitlyn Russell, center, at Valley Christian Academy Monday. The two are joined by U.S. Navy veteran Jack Fox, back left, and U.S. Army veteran Michael Murphy and his service dog, a rare black shar-pei, named Dom Khai Mook, or "Dommie." The veterans spoke to students at the school and answered questions about their time in the service.
Firefighters take on distracted driving Two Roswell firefighters are taking their skills to the classroom in an effort to stop distracted driving. Division Chief Jason Sweatfield and Battalion Chief Shane Adams were at Goddard High School last week talking to ninthgraders about the dangers of distracted driving, especially texting and driving. Sweatfield is the chief over training and safety for the Roswell Fire Department, and he says the distracted driving program came into being when he was asked by the Chamber of Commerce to present a program on distracted driving. “That very same day my daughter asked if I would come to her school and do a presentation,” Sweatfield said. So he took his presentation he’d made for the Chamber to his daughter’s ninth-grade health class at Goddard High School. “Her teacher asked if we could make the presentation to the rest of her classes, and that got us started,” Sweatfield said. Adams’ daughter is also a freshman, so the two firemen bonded in their effort to bring their message — don’t text and drive
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— to the young students in Roswell Public Schools. The presentation has been made at Roswell High School and Goddard High School to all the freshmen students, and the two firefighers will be at New Mexico Military Institute on Friday making their presentation to students. “We also want to reach out to the valley,” Sweatfield said, adding that they hope to take the program to the Dexter, Hagerman and Lake Arthur schools in the future. “We’ve been working with Diane Taylor and the Chaves County DWI Program,” Sweatfield said. The DWI Program provides the firemen with distracted driving simulators, which allows the students to see what it is like to drive while distracted. “You can either use the cellphone in the simulator or your own cellphone,” Adams said. “This is really one of the epidemics that we face as a society, and it isn’t just the kids who are texting
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BY RANDAL SEYLER RECORD CITY EDITOR
November 18, 2014
and evading arrest. Bell said Figueroa, on April 5, 2013, via certified mail, sent a motion under the interstate detainers act to 5th Judicial District Attorney Janetta Hicks and Chaves County Sheriff Rob Coon, and others, requesting a speedy trial in Chaves County. On April 19, 2013, the state filed its first motion requesting the Chaves County Sherif f’s Of fice transport Figueroa to Chaves County for court
proceedings. On May 6, 2013, the state filed a second motion requesting the sherif f’s office transport Figueroa to Chaves County, and on June 4, 2013, the state filed a third motion. In the third motion, the state alerted Hudson that Figueroa had filed the motion under the Interstate Agreement on Detainers Act requesting a speedy trial in Chaves County.
BY SAYYED SHAW NEW MEXICO DAILY LOBO
branch campuses are counted in the numbers and the default rates are typically much higher than four-year institutions,” he said. According to the press release, the default rates were calculated using the cohort of borrowers who entered repayment on their Direct Loans or Federal Family Education Loan Program loans between Oct. 1, 2010, and Sept. 30, 2011, and who defaulted before Sept. 30, 2013. “While it’s good news that the default rate decreased from last year nationally, the number of students who default on their federal student loans is still too high,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in the release. “We remain committed to working with postsecondary education institutions and borrowers to ensure that student debt is manageable.” But Babbitt said UNM students are not quite in dire straits. Only 634 UNM students defaulted, compared to more than 1,000 at both New Mexico State University and Arizona State University. “The primary culprit of defaulting on student loans is not completing your degree or credential,” he said. “Eighty percent of defaulters did not complete
New Mexico graduates struggle with loan debt ALBUQUERQUE — New Mexico colleges have the highest number of student loan defaults in the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Education. The recently published Cohort Default Rate shows New Mexico’s student loan default rate was the highest in the country at 20.8 percent in the financial year 2011, whereas the national average percentage was 13.7, according to a press release. Nationally, the default rates went down by a percentage point in the last year, according to the release. UNM’s default rate was at 13 percent — up from 8.6 percent in that last report. Western New Mexico University had the highest default rate at 28.3 percent, up nearly 10 points, and the default rates at New Mexico State University and New Mexico Highlands University also increased. There were more students borrowing more money, and the unemployment rate was very high when these students went into repayment, said Terry Babbitt, associate vice president of enrollment management at UNM. “There is no question that the weak economy hurt this cohort. Also,
Shane Adams, Roswell Fire Department battalion chief, watches Roswell High School students use the distracted driving simulators during a health class. Adams and Division Chief Jason Sweatfield have been presenting their distracted driving presentation to ninth-graders at Roswell and Goddard High Schools.
and driving,” Sweatfield said. “We all do it. We all have cellphones.”
“Eleven teens die every day from texting and driving,” Adams added. According to the website stoptextsstopwrecks.org, 49 percent of drivers with cellphones under the age of 35 send or read text messages while driving, and 11 percent of all drivers under the age of 20 involved in fatal crashes
• DAVID THERRIEN • ERNESTO G. RUBIO • SALLY MILLER RUE
were reported as distracted at the time of the crash. The website also reports that 49 percent of drivers with cellphones under the age of 35 send or receive text messages while driving. Roswell Fire Department’s EMS Chief Eric Mann created the PowerPoint presentation that Sweatfield and Adams use, See DRIVING, Page A3
• ROBERT LEE MASON
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See LOANS, Page A3
Task force work results in drug dealers’ convictions STAFF REPORT
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See MURDER, Page A3
Two local drug dealers are likely headed to prison in the near future following their convictions recently in state District Court in Roswell. The two Roswell men were each found guilty of trafficking methamphetamine, a controlled substance. Vincent H. “Vinnie” Vacca, 46, and Joseph Anthony Bersane, 33, were each arrested and charged as a result of the ef forts of Roswell Police Department Special Investigations Division personnel who are members of the Chaves County Metro Narcotics Task Force. The convictions are the latest among numerous cases that have taken drug dealers of f the city streets in recent years. At the conclusion of their separate trials, the guilty verdicts were issued Nov. 4 for Vacca and Nov. 5 for Bersane.
Trafficking controlled substances is a seconddegree criminal offense under state law and holds a prison sentence of up to nine years. In Vacca’s case, however, the state is seeking to push the sentence to a first-degree level that would extend the potential prison time the judge could issue to as much as 18 years. In addition, Vacca faces a possible “habitual of fender enhancement” — as a result of one or more prior felony convictions –— that could add more time to his sentence. New Mexico court records show Vacca was convicted in 2006 of receiving/disposing of stolen property and conspiracy. Vacca is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 10 (his attorney has filed a motion for a new trial; that motion is scheduled to be heard in court Dec. 1). Bersane is to be sentenced Dec. 29.
CLASSIFIEDS ..........B6
INDEX GENERAL ...............A2
FINANCIAL ..............B4
LOTTERIES .............A2
COMICS .................B5
HOROSCOPES .........A8
OPINION .................A4
SPORTS .................B1
WEATHER ..............B8