Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Staff and wire reports
A man convicted in the 1998 shooting death of a Tucumcari man was shot to death Tuesday by Albuquerque police.
Albuquerque police have identified a man fatally shot by an officer at a truck stop as 42-year-old Julian Calbert formerly of Tucumcari.
Curry County Undersheriff Wesley Waller, a retired state police investigator, confirmed Calbert was a Tucumcari native convicted in the 1998 shooting death of Felix Miguel Gutierrez, also of Tucumcari.
Albuqurque police say at 1 a.m., they received a report of a woman locked in the trunk of a car and when they arrived they managed to locate the car.
Police say the first officer on the scene ordered the driver to open the trunk, but the man refused and started yelling at the officer, then lunged at him.
Police say the officer opened fire and fatally shot the man.
The woman in the trunk was checked and officers say she’s all right. There was a woman passenger in the car that investigators questioned.
In August 1998, Calbert and two other men were charged with murder after Gutierrez’s body was found in an irrigation canal about a half mile south of Tucumcari, according to Amarillo Globe News archives.
Waller, who was involved in the investigation nearly 12 years ago, said Calbert was ultimately convicted in the case.
