Year in review — Crime and tragedy

Freedom New Mexico: Tony Bullocks Curry County Under Sheriff Wesley Waller and investigator Waldo Casarez at an Oct. 14 crime scene on Homestead Road where two people was reported dead at the scene.

Freedom New Mexico

Child convicted in Portales death

A Roosevelt County jury on April 15 found a 13-year-old Portales boy guilty of killing a 21-year-old Eastern New Mexico University student.

Prosecutors said DeAngelo Montoya broke into Angel Vale’s home multiple times when she was away and ultimately stole a rifle from the home that was used to kill her on July 22, 2010.

They believe Vale caught the boy in her back yard with the rifle and he shot her three times, though he repeatedly denied the charge in interviews with police.

The boy was placed in a Children, Youth and Families Department group facility, where he is ordered to remain until he is 21. The punishment is the maximum allowed by law for a child.

“We can’t ever have her back, but this is justice,” said Vale’s fiance Edward Lucero Jr.