The public safety director of Laguna Pueblo, a captain for the Arizona Department of Public Safety, and a deputy chief/major with the Tulsa (Oklahoma) Public Schools Police Department with ties to Hobbs are the three finalists for Hobbs police chief. Jesus “Jesse” Francisco Orozco, public safety director for the Laguna Pueblo; John Joseph Ortolano, a captain for the Arizona Department …

LOVINGTON — A Hobbs man has been found guilty of sex crimes in district court. On March 27, Lorenzo Contreras, 45, was delivered the verdict of guilty from a jury of his peers in Fifth Judicial District Court on two felony charges of sexual exploitation of children under the age of 18. On May 13, Contreras was sentenced by District …

A Hobbs teenager charged with shooting at a vehicle early Sunday and striking a 15-year-old boy three times will be tried as an adult, the district attorney said Tuesday. Kevin Hernandez, 17, of Hobbs, was charged Sunday with shooting at or from a motor vehicle involving great bodily harm and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. According to police reports, …

A third alleged suspect wanted by Hobbs police since December after a string of porch burglaries has been arrested and charged with receiving stolen property valued at more than $20,000. Shawn Darwin Calapp, 34, of Hobbs, was arrested on the second-degree felony charge Wednesday after police searched his mother’s home in the 400 block of West Park Street late last …

A Hobbs neighborhood near the Texas-New Mexico border was overrun by Lea Country Sheriff deputies and Hobbs police during a hostage situation on Easter Sunday. During those seven hours, Hobbs resident Jared Pendleton threatened his own life, while holding four family members at bay in a house on the 2500 block of Waylon, about a mile west of the state …

A traffic stop 30 minutes before the Lea County’s Sheriff’s Office was called on a report of a suspicious death helped Lea investigators arrest a suspect on a charge of murder. On Friday, the Lea County Sheriff’s Office released a statement that Hobbs resident Albino A. Mendez-Solis, 30, was arrested in connection to the April 1 murder of Wilson M. …

LOVINGTON — A Hobbs man who had been convicted of second-degree murder last fall had his request for a new trial denied this week and was promptly sentenced to the maximum prison term. Fifth Judicial District Judge Mike Stone sentenced Sammy Piñon Jr., 32, on Thursday to 17 years in prison for the murder of 32-year-old Thomas May, who was …

Ten people conspiring to supply Lea County with narcotics were arrested this week in a multi-agency investigation, according to a U.S. Department of Justice statement. The operation concluded with the arrest of five people on Thursday, some of whom live in Hobbs. Defendants in the case include seven Lea County residents: Patricia Chihuahua, age 37; Ricardo Hernandez, 44; Abraham Navarrette, …

A traffic stop last week by a Lea County Sheriff’s deputy turned into a drug bust of more than $28,000. In a release by the Lea County Drug Task Force, on Thursday, Jan. 17 a sheriff’s deputy pulled over a vehicle on NM Highway 18 for a suspension of registration. The stop ended with the arrest of Rafael Medina III, …

An armed robbery of a Hobbs convenience store reportedly escalated into a shootout late Dec. 15. No suspects have been identified and no injuries were reported. According to a Hobbs Police Department incident report, a suspect pointed a gun at two clerks at 1:30 a.m. on a Saturday night demanding the store’s employees open the cash drawer of the convenience …