12 02 14 Roswell Daily Record

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Roswell Daily Record

Vol. 123, No. 289 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday

THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY

December 2, 2014

Alleged pocket-dial burglar mulling venue change BY JEFF TUCKER RECORD STAFF WRITER

The attor ney for the alleged pocket-dial burglar said in court Monday he is contemplating requesting a change in venue due to media publicity of his client’s alleged accidental confession. Aaron Dusty Burrell appeared for his arraignment Monday morning in Roswell before District Judge Steven Bell, while Burrell is out of jail on $5,000 bond.

Burrell, 37, of Roswell, pleaded not guilty Monday to felony charges of residential burglary, conspiracy to commit residential burglary and receiving stolen property. Bell sat June 23 for the date of Burrell’s jury trial, with a June 8 pre-trial hearing. Burrell’s attorney, public defender Nathaniel Banks, told Bell he is contemplating filing a motion requesting a change in venue because of media attention the case has garnered.

TUESDAY

www.rdrnews.com

Burrell

“I don’t know at this moment,” Banks told the Daily Record outside of

court. “We’re contemplating it. I don’t know if we’ll do it or not.” Bell set a status hearing for Dec. 18. Banks said he requested the status hearing in the event he files a motion for a change of venue. Burrell’s case has garnered statewide and national media coverage, although until today, the Daily Record had published just one article about the unusual burglary case, on Oct. 24. Investigators said Burrell

Dead body found

unwittingly pocket-dialed 911 the night of Sept. 29 while talking about a burglary he and others allegedly had just committed in the 300 block of East Hervey Drive. In the 45-minute-plus audio, one suspect described where the burglary happened and how they eluded police. The suspects can also be heard listening to the Bon Jovi song, “Wanted Dead or Alive.” Police located and arrested three suspects in Octo-

ber, based on what an emergency dispatcher heard in the 911 call. In addition to Burrell, Marvin Myers and Yvonne Thyberg were charged in connection to the burglary along East Hervey Drive. Thyberg, 35, also of Roswell, is also charged with three felonies; residential burglary, conspiracy to commit residential burglary and tampering with evidence. Charges against Thyberg

NMMI cadet chosen for naval academy

See BURRELL, Page A3

BY JEFF TUCKER RECORD STAFF WRITER

Max Scally Photo

Authorites had a section of Phoenix Road in Midway closed to traffic Monday as they investigated where a dead body was found. Around 5:30 a.m. Monday, a body of a man was discovered by a property owner on Phoenix Road near No Name Road. The name of the victim was not known and no other details were available at press time.

A cadet at New Mexico Military Institute who says he was inspired to serve in the U.S. military after North Korea attacked South Korean forces has been nominated by U.S. Sen. Tom Udall to attend the U.S. Naval Academy. Austin Kyung, a U.S. citizen from Seoul, South Korea, graduated high school from New Mexico Military Institute in May after transferring to NMMI as a high school senior. Kyung, 19, is currently a freshman in the Academy Prep program at NMMI. He is slated to graduate in May 2016. Kyung said his military training at NMMI has greatly helped prepare him for the naval academy. He said he intends on becoming a Marine Corps officer after receiving his commission at the naval academy at Annapolis. “I want to go into the

Kyung

Marines Corps,” Kyung said. Kyung said he was motivated to serve in the U.S. military by North Korea’s attacks on South Korean forces in 2010. On March 26, 2010, the Cheonan, a Republic of Korea Navy ship carrying

Conservatives work to block Dance instructor, community volunteer Bobbi Alcorn dies Obama on immigration

WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservatives circulated draft legislation Monday aimed at blocking President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration from taking ef fect, as Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson prepared to offer GOP critics a fullthroated defense of the new policies. Obama’s move to shield some 4 million immigrants here illegally from deportation amounts to “simple common sense,” Johnson was to tell the Republicanled House Homeland Security Committee Tuesday in the administration’s first testimony on the issue since Obama announced the changes two weeks ago. “The reality is that, given our limited resources, these people are not priorities for removal,” Johnson said in prepared written testimony. “It’s time we acknowledge that and encourage them to be held accountable.” Republicans have vowed to stop Obama’s moves from taking effect, but how they will do so remained unclear as they returned to Capitol Hill on Monday after a weeklong Thanksgiving break. GOP leadership in the House planned to discuss options in a closed-door meeting with the rank-and-file on Tuesday morning.

The issue is tied in with the need to pass a government funding bill by Dec. 11, or risk a shutdown. Conservatives have been agitating to use any government funding bill to block Obama’s moves, and on Monday conservatives on and off Capitol Hill circulated bill language that would stipulate that no money or fees “may be used by any agency to implement, administer, enforce or carry out any of the policy changes” announced by Obama. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday Obama would veto any government spending bill that undid his executive actions on immigration. “What the president announced about 10 days ago was entirely consistently with the precedent that was established by previous precedents — by previous presidents and is well within the legal confines of the law as it relates to prosecutorial discretion,” Earnest said. Others in the Republican Party have war ned that including such language would court a government shutdown that could backfire on the GOP, since Obama would be certain to veto it. Lawmakers were casting about for other approaches, including a full-year spending bill for

HIGH 62 LOW 35

TODAY’S FORECAST

most government agencies combined with a shorter term measure for departments that deal with immigration.

All agreed they must stop Obama in the wake of November midterm elections where they retook control of the Senate and increased their majority in the House.

“The president’s decision to bypass Congress and grant amnesty to millions of unlawful immigrants is unconstitutional and a threat to our democracy,” the Homeland Security Committee chair man, Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, said in a statement. “I will use every tool at my disposal to stop the president’s unconstitutional actions from being implemented, starting with this oversight hearing.”

Obama’s deportation deferral applies to people who’ve been in the country more than five years and have kids who are citizens or legal permanent residents. He also expanded an existing program that grants work permits and deportation deferrals to immigrants brought here illegally as kids, and reordered law enforcement priorities to focus on new arrivals and people with criminal records.

• BETTY SUE WILLIAMS • ELIZABETH JESSE • ANNIE LEE GREEN

See KYUNG, Page A3

BY RANDAL SEYLER RECORD CITY EDITOR

Local dance instructor and community volunteer Bobbi Alcorn died Sunday in Roswell. Alcorn, 89, along with her late husband, James “Rex” Alcor n, built the Alcorn Academy of Dance at 2000 S. Main St. in 1961, where they taught ballet, tap, acrobatics and jazz for 42 years. “Mrs. Alcor n was always a very strict, but loving, instructor,” said former dance student, Dr. Heather Whitley, via email on Monday. Whitley File Photo is a design physicist at the Lawrence Livermore Ron Malone, left, congratulates Bobbi Alcorn, right, who National Laboratory in was honored as a Silent Servant by the Historical Society Livermore, California. & Foundation for Southeast New Mexico on Oct. 2, 2012. “I studied at the Alcorn Academy from 1990- per for med over the Phoenix. They then 1998. I’m a scientist at a years,” Whitley said. moved to Dallas, and Rex national lab and I’ve “She taught us that began working for Sun Oil received some recognition attention to detail is Co., while Bobbi pursued for success in my career important, and that has modeling. In 1951, the in the form of a Presiden- definitely influenced Alcorns were transferred tial Award, and I feel like everything that I do, espe- to Roswell, where Rex my success was shaped cially in my career.” was promoted to district in part by the years I Alcor n met her hus- geologist. Sons Dennis spent learning from Mrs. band in Namur, Belgium, and David, and daughter Alcorn,” she said. where she was working as Fawn, were all bor n in Whitley said that as an a professional dancer per- New Mexico. Declining another instructor, Alcorn expect- forming with the USO. He ed her students to strive was an Air Force officer transfer to Texas, Rex for perfection in every- stationed in England dur- became an independent geologist, while Bobbi thing they did. “That was ing World War II. Upon Rex’s return to always apparent in the very well-polished shows the U.S. in 1948, he and See ALCORN, Page A3 that the Alcorn Academy Bobbi were married in

• FRANCES LUELLA SNEDDON • JEFFREY TASCHNER • NAOMI “BOBBI” ALCORN

TODAY’S OBITUARIES PAGE A6

CLASSIFIEDS ..........B6

INDEX GENERAL ...............A2

FINANCIAL ..............B4

LOTTERIES .............A2

COMICS .................B5

HOROSCOPES .........A8

OPINION .................A4

SPORTS .................B1

WEATHER ..............A8


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