Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

Suspect profiles

Compiled by David Irvin

Three men and one woman are in police custody in connection with last week’s deaths of Odis and Doris Newman. The following profiles of the suspects were compiled by Freedom Newspapers Staff Writer David Irvin.

Jerry Fuller

Age: 32

Residence: Portales

Charge: Two open counts of murder

Bond: None

Fuller is hospitalized at Covenant hospital in Lubbock after being shot in an altercation with police Tuesday morning.

Fuller is the nephew of the Newmans through marriage, family members said.

When Fuller was In his early 20s, he worked for Odis and his other uncle, Gene Newman, who owns and operates Newman Electric in Clovis.

“I haven’t had any contact with Jerry in several years,” Newman said. “When he was a young man he worked for Odis a little bit and worked for me a little bit.”

Although Gene Newman said he only knew Fuller slightly, “he didn’t seem like a violent-type person then,” he said.

At some point Fuller may have moved to Fort Worth to live with his father, Gene Newman said. Attempts to contact his father Tuesday were unsuccessful.

In the late hours of Monday, law enforcement went to Fuller’s Portales residence at 1020 N. Main, and a resident of the house advised he had left the house in an agitated fashion and with a handgun, District Attorney Matthew Chandler said.

Officers discovered his vehicle about two hours later at his house.

Today he is in the custody of the New Mexico State Police at the Lubbock hospital and will return to incarceration in Roosevelt County upon his release, Chandler said.

Stanley J. Bedford

Age: 41

Residence: Portales

Charge: Possession of stolen property

Bond: $10,000 cash

As recently as October, Bedford was working as a temporary groundskeeper at Eastern New Mexico University, his service manager said.

“He had nothing beyond the normal problems” of learning the skills of the job, like the topography of the campus, said John Wall, who has been at the university more than 20 years. At worst Bedford was an average employee, he said.

Family members in Amarillo said they were shocked to see Bedford on the Amarillo news Tuesday night. His family knew he had a job in Portales and was staying out of jail. He has been in the Clovis area for about two years, they said.

In the last eight years Bedford has pleaded guilty to a number of crimes, including possession of a controlled substance, possession of a firearm by a felon and driving while license suspended or revoked, court records show.

Cynthia Peninger

Age: 22

Residence: Portales

Charge: Possession of stolen property

Bond: $10,000 cash

Peninger arrived in the 700 block of South Main Avenue in Portales right around Christmas, neighbors said.

Since that time the residence, which she shared with Archie Crawford and possibly even Bedford, was frequently the scene of boisterous parties, one neighbor said.

Another neighbor said a lot of traffic could be seen going in and out of the house. However, in the past three weeks the residence seemed to quiet down some, one neighbor said. It is unclear where Peninger lived prior to December.

Peninger pleaded no contest to failure to use a safety belt last year and she is currently involved in a civil case, but her record reveals no felonies.

Archie Crawford

Age: 24

Residence: Portales

Charge: Possession of stolen property

Bond: $10,000 cash

Crawford moved into the house in the 700 block of South Main in Portales the same time as Peninger.

He pleaded guilty to failure to use safety belts and driving while his license was suspended or revoked. Additionally he pleaded no contest to a charge of not properly restraining a child in a vehicle, court records show.

There were no felonies found in his New Mexico record.