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Testimony heard in slaying by police
LAS CRUCES — A federal judge is hearing testimony in the trial of a wrongful death suit against Las Cruces and a police officer for the 2010 fatal shooting of a man holding a sword. According to the Las Cruces Sun-News, the suit filed on behalf of 24-year-old Lance Hummell’s family seeks more than $14 million in damages. The suit alleges that police were grossly negligent in shooting Hummell with indifference to his constitutional rights. Both officers who responded to a call about an irate man with a sword said they feared for their lives when they encountered Hummell. A witness testified Monday that Hummell didn’t have time to act on an officer’s command to not move before he was shot, but officer Horacio River said Hummell had that opportunity.
N.M. links sought in cold-case arrest
Authorities in New Mexico are checking to see if any unsolved cases can be linked to a man arrested in three California killings decades ago.
Former boxer and transient Samuel Little is charged in California with three killings, but the 72-year-old has a 100-page rap sheet detailing dozens of crimes in 24 states over 56 years.
Television station KRQE in Albuquerque reported that Little was in New Mexico at least twice.
He was arrested in Albuquerque in 1992 and accused of shoplifting. And he was accused of shoplifting in Hobbs two years ago.
The Metro Forensic Crime Lab, shared by the Albuquerque Police Department and the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office, will run Little’s DNA to check for any matches to cold cases in New Mexico.
Former vet faces 48 cruelty counts
SANTA FE — A former Rio Rancho veterinarian was charged with 48 counts of animal cruelty in state District Court in Santa Fe on Tuesday, a result of a search by sheriff’s deputies at the woman’s home in Edgewood last week.
Investigators found what were described as “deplorable” conditions at the home of Debra Clopton, 48, whose license was revoked by the New Mexico Board of Veterinary Medicine last year.
They also found 48 dogs of various sizes and breeds, which have been transported to the Santa Fe County Animal Shelter. Three of the dogs were euthanized due to a neurological disease.
District Attorney Angela “Spence” Pacheco said the charges were brought under the state’s statute covering cruelty to animals and included negligently mistreating, abandoning or failing to provide necessary sustenance to an animal.
— This article appeared on page C02 of the Albuquerque Journal
