DA says Christmas Eve slaying in Clovis may have been racially motivated.

Jimmy Bentley, 71, of Farmington, is facing an open count of murder and two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in connection with the shooting death of Joseph Phillips, 48, of Guthrie, Okla., outside a Clovis motel Saturday night.

Bentley, who is being held at the Curry County Detention Center on a $100,000 cash bond, is accused of shooting Phillips in the parking lot of the Econo Lodge Motel around 9:45 p.m. on Christmas Eve.

According to Clovis News-Journal reports, Phillips had called a cab to take him from the motel where he had been staying since Dec. 2 and stepped outside the vehicle to smoke a cigar.

The cab driver told police he saw Bentley and Phillips exchange words when Bentley pointed a small handgun at Phillips' face, then shoot Phillips while his hands were raised, District Attorney Matt Chandler said this week, according to the News-Journal.

At Bentley's arraignment on Wednesday, Chandler told the court the slaying of Phillips, a black man, may have been racially motivated, noting that Bentley's nickname he'd been given at a Farmington gun club was "Lynching Lloyd," the News-Journal reported today in its online edition.

Bentley's attorney, Randy Knudson, said the nickname was meant to be a joke, and said his client -- who has no violent criminal history and may be suffering from Alzheimer's disease -- may have felt threatened by Phillips, the News-Journal reported.

Bentley was staying at the motel with his wife, Linda Bentley, 60, of Farmington, and his 35-year-old niece, Maela Edmondson of Albuquerque, according to earlier News-Journal reports.

The two women were briefly handcuffed by police at the shooting scene but were not placed under arrest, the paper reported.

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