New Mexico
Two teenage boys accused of using drug deal to rob and kill woman
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Two teenage boys in Albuquerque are facing murder charges after police say they set up a drug deal to rob the victim.
Police spokesperson Gilbert Gallegos said Friday that a 14-year-old and 15-year-old were arrested in the July 4 killing of Alana Gamboa.
They were both booked into the Bernalillo County Juvenile Detention Center. The 15-year-old is charged with one count each of murder, robbery and evidence tampering, according to a criminal complaint filed in court. The 14-year-old faces the same charges, Gallegos said.
The Associated Press does not generally identify juvenile crime suspects.
According to investigators, Gamboa and one of the teens had been chatting via social media and agreed to meet so he could buy mushrooms and marijuana vape pens.
The victim was sitting in her car around 12:35 a.m. and reaching for a gun when she was shot. Gamboa died by the time authorities got to the scene.
Gallegos said detectives used social media conversations, witness statements and surveillance video to identify one of the boys as a juvenile who was on supervised probation.
They located him Thursday at an apartment complex, where the second teen suspect was also present and admitted to shooting Gamboa.
The investigation into Gamboa’s death is ongoing.
The arrests come a day after a 13-year-old Albuquerque boy was charged with murder and other counts in the shooting of a different woman. She allegedly confronted him and other teens who were riding around in her vehicle, which had been stolen days earlier.
The suspect in that case made his first court appearance Friday and was ordered held pending trial. His public defender, David Richter, acknowledged the allegations were upsetting for the community.
“We try to make sense of what happened, and we question what in our society makes this possible,” he said in a statement.
“What we find when we ask these questions is more tragedy and sadness and systemic failures. What we also find is that children are fundamentally different than adults. Their brains aren’t fully developed. They are impulsive and reactive in ways that we can’t put our adult framework on.”
New Hampshire
State sued over removal of marker dedicated to Communist Party leader
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Supporters of a former historical marker dedicated to a feminist and labor activist from New Hampshire who also led the U.S. Communist Party sued the state Monday, saying officials violated a law around administrative procedures and should put it back up.
The green and white sign describing the life of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was installed May 1 in Concord close to where she was born Aug. 7, 1890. It was one of more than 275 across the state that describe people and places, from Revolutionary War soldiers to contemporary sports figures. But it was taken down two weeks after it went up.
Known as “The Rebel Girl” for her fiery speeches, Flynn was a founder of the American Civil Liberties Union and advocated for women’s voting rights and access to birth control. The marker said she joined the Communist Party in 1936 and was sent to prison in 1951. She was one of many party members prosecuted “under the notorious Smith Act,” the marker said, which forbade attempts to advocate, abet or teach the violent destruction of the U.S. government.
Flynn later chaired the Communist Party of the United States. She died at 74 in Moscow during a visit in 1964.
The marker had drawn criticism from two Republican members of the Executive Council, a five-member body that approves state contracts, judicial nominees and other positions, who argued it was inappropriate, given Flynn’s Communist involvement.
Republican Gov. Chris Sununu agreed and called for a review of the historical marker process. It was removed in consultation with Sununu, according to Sarah Crawford Stewart, commissioner of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
But “the marker was illegally removed based on ideological considerations that fly in the face of the historical marker program’s purpose,” said plaintiff Mary Lee Sargent, an American history teacher who, along with activist Arnold Alpert, filed the lawsuit against the state in superior court.
The lawsuit says that state officials violated the state’s Administrative Procedures Act, its historic markers program and the plaintiffs’ rights to due process by interfering with Sargent’s and Alpert’s rights “to duly petition for the approval and erection of a historical marker” near Gurley Flynn’s birthplace.
The complaint specifically names Secretary of State David Scanlan as representative of New Hampshire, along with Stewart and Transportation Commissioner William Cass. Messages seeking comment on the lawsuit were sent to all three, as well as to the New Hampshire attorney general’s office, which represents the state and its departments in litigation.
Under the current process, any person, municipality or agency can suggest a marker as long as they get 20 signatures from New Hampshire residents. Supporters must draft the marker’s text and provide footnotes and copies of supporting documentation, according to the state Division of Historical Resources. The division and a historical resources advisory group evaluate the criteria.
The lawsuit said that policies and guidelines used by the department to run the program are invalid because their adoption wasn’t consistent with requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act. The lawsuit said Stewart didn’t even follow the guidelines, which require the department to consult with an advisory historical resources council before markers are “retired.”
Missouri
Man sentenced to prison for 1987 murder
UNION, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, nearly four decades after a woman was strangled with her body dumped in the woods.
Kirby R. King, now in his late 60s, pleaded guilty in June to involuntary manslaughter and felonious restraint in the 1987 death of 22-year-old Karla Jane Delcour. He was sentenced Thursday.
Investigators believe Delcour was killed at a home in the eastern Missouri town of Union on June 21, 1987. Her body was found about four days later near neighboring St. Clair, where she was living. Her wrists and neck were bound by a cord.
King was questioned in 1987 but not charged.
The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office reopened the case in 2018 and King was arrested in 2019, initially charged with second-degree murder. Investigators have not said what new evidence led to his arrest and conviction.
