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LAS CRUCES – Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham approved $28.2 million in capital outlay projects for Doña Ana County as part of a $511 million capital bill this month; and for the first time, the public can see how and where state legislators and the governor directed the public infrastructure dollars under their discretion.
That s because lawmakers passed a law during this winter s 60-day legislative session requiring the previously secret funding requests to be published by the Legislative Council Service along with the funded projects, including projects that were vetoed.
Lujan Grisham vetoed a small percentage of projects, including three in Doña Ana County, explaining in a statement that she eliminated projects that were too small (under $10,000), projects where the proposed recipients have not used capital funds from the current fiscal year, were not properly planned or otherwise not ready to proceed.
Las Cruces mother convicted in shaken baby case
LAS CRUCES – A Las Cruces mother was found guilty of child abuse resulting in great bodily harm on Wednesday following the death of her infant daughter in 2018.
A jury found Caricia Ceballos, 22, guilty of the first-degree felony charge. Jury members were sworn in Wednesday before Third Judicial District Court Judge Douglas Driggers and returned a verdict the same day.
Following the verdict, Ceballos was taken into custody to await sentencing. She is facing 12 to 18 years in prison.
Ceballos was arrested Jan. 20, 2018, on a charge of child abuse due to the death of her 7-week-old daughter Mattie Minnick. The baby’s father, Marcus Alton Minnick, was arrested on a charge of first-degree child abuse resulting in death.
Doña Ana County man sentenced to 10 years in vehicular homicide case
From Staff Reports
LAS CRUCES - A Doña Ana County man on Tuesday was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and other charges.
Ruben Rojas, 59, accepted responsibility for a 2018 fatal crash on Interstate 10, pleading guilty last month to one charge of homicide by vehicle and two counts of great bodily harm by vehicle, while driving drunk.
Third Judicial District Court Judge Conrad Perea presided over Rojas trial and sentencing.
Rojas crashed into a vehicle parked along the side of the interstate, killing a mother and seriously injuring her two adult children. He told investigators that he d had some beer prior to getting into his car and driving. Rojas claims he fell asleep at the wheel before the crash.
Griffin files appeal in recall case
On April 19, Otero County Commission Vice Chairman Couy Griffin filed a stay in the New Mexico District Court recall case against him.
The district court stay was denied by Third Judicial District Court Judge Manuel Arrieta who had found probable cause to recall Griffin in the April 8 recall hearing. Given the timetable for a recall process and the accelerated nature of the appeal, there is no need to stay the recall proceedings as the appeal will likely be heard before the recall can be scheduled, assuming the requisite signatures are verified, Arrieta stated in his order denying the stay.
Man sentenced to 206-230 years in cold case
March 10, 2021
LARAMIE (Wyoming News Exchange/Green River Star) – A man who was previously sentenced for a sexual assault in Sweetwater County was recently sentenced for a similar crime in Albany County. Mark Douglas Burns, 70, of Ogden, Utah, was sentenced Feb. 17 by Albany County Second Judicial District Court Judge Tori Kricken for the 1996 sexual assault of a Laramie resident.
Burns pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual assault in the first degree; one count of burglary; and one count of kidnapping-confinement. He received a sentence of 206 – 230 years in prison.
In May 2015, after DNA enter.