Portales man goes to trial next week

District Judge Donna Mowrer on Wednesday denied a request to lower bond for a Portales man facing multiple felony charges.

Chance Plummer, 29, was charged with aggravated battery in January, then a short time later was charged with several counts of receiving stolen property.

In April, Plummer was one of 11 people arrested by the Roosevelt County Sheriff’s Office on drug charges.

Plummer’s trial in the aggravated battery case is set for Tuesday.

Other trials are scheduled for Sept. 29 and Oct. 12.

On Wednesday, his attorney, James Klipstine, asked Mowrer to lower Plummer’s two $10,000 bonds.

Klipstine told the judge he had disproved accusations that Plummer had been plotting to violate his conditions of release previously by leaving the state.

Assistant District Attorney Jake Boazman told the judge the state still has concerns that Plummer is a danger to the community, because of who he associates with outside of jail and because phone calls Plummer has made from the jail have led them to believe he is still a flight risk.

Sheriff Malin Parker said that in the one phone call he heard Plummer make from the jail, Plummer told the person he was talking to, “I want you to smash him. I want you to smash him right now, or I’ll revoke your bond and you’ll have to come in here and deal with me.”

Klipstine countered that what people overhear is not evidence.

Mowrer denied the request to lower bond, citing the three upcoming cases and that Plummer had violated his conditions of release previously.