Month: December 2010

Depressed, suicidal and mentally unstable. These are just some of the psychological elements brought up in reference to 51-year-old defendant Kenneth Rauch the third day of his murder trial. Tuesday the jury heard heart-wrenching testimony from a woman who watched her 27-year-old El Paso fianc die beside her in his car outside a Las Cruces

The retrial of David Marmolejo has been set for March 7, 2011 in San Antonio. The trial will have a two-week deadline, as that’s the available window of time for the courtroom. Judge Gonzalo Garcia announced the trial date Thursday morning. Other cities that were under consideration were Austin, Houston and Midland-Odessa. Marmolejo’s first trial

A lawsuit has been filed to keep city retirees from losing health insurance benefits. The El Paso Municipal Police Officers Association is suing the city on behalf of two El Paso Police officers – Ron Martin and Virginia Jimenez and her domestic partner, Mayela Arzipe. A judge has already filed a temporary restraining order, meaning

Luis Varela has resigned from the Socorro, Texas city council, according to another member of the town’s city council. Gloria Rodriguez told ABC-7 Varela turned in a letter to Mayor Willie Gandara Sr. on Tuesday. The next step is for the city council to talk to the city’s attorney to see how to proceed. Varela

The Miners and Cougars go way back. In fact, this year marks the 25th anniversary of the biggest upset in UTEP football history – the shocking victory over the defending national champion BYU cougars. UTEP’s 23-16 upset happened on Oct. 26, 1985 and was dubbed “The Miner Miracle.” Bill Yung, who coached the Miners to

ABCNews Last fall, as he had done hundreds of times, Iranian-American businessman Farid Seif passed through security at a Houston airport and boarded an international flight. He didn’t realize he had forgotten to remove the loaded snub nose “baby” Glock pistol from his computer bag. But TSA officers never noticed as his bag glided along

A Florida family stopped by the borderland on their cross-country trip to grow closer. The Belchers have decided to travel through all 50 states, and some of Canada, in their RV, not only to discover the U.S., but also to grow their family ties. John and Kathy took their four young children out of school

ABCNews Snakes, spiders, haunted houses and scary movies may evoke shrieks of fright in many people, but there’s one woman who doesn’t seem to be afraid of them — or anything else. She goes only by the initials S.M. to protect her identity and she is the subject of a study published in the latest

Some East Side business owners are checking their locks twice these days. In the past week alone, there’s been two burglaries and a robbery at the Vista Estrella Two” strip mall on George Dieter, with one of the robberies occurring at a Christian book store. Sales are no longer the only concern of business owners

A judge may end up having the final say on the issue of benefits for unwed partners of city employees. On Wednesday, an attorney for the El Paso Municipal Police Officers’ Association is expected to file a lawsuit against the city, alleging constitutional and contract violations. The lawsuit will specifically involve one retired police officer

Some hikers hoping to enjoy the Franklin Mountain’s rugged beauty are being warned to stay away by private property owners. It’s an issue that was first brought to our attention by ABC-7 General Manager, Kevin Lovell. Lovell adressed City Council on the topic in a public comment during Tuesday’s meeting. Like Lovell, West side resident

It wasn’t the vision Tracey Benson had in mind when she decided to donate money to pay for wreaths at Fort Bliss National Cemetery as part of ‘Wreaths Across America.’ “To see them all brown and piled up,” she told ABC-7, “It was just sad.” Benson donated $60, enough to pay for four wreaths including

The number of 13-year-olds who have used an illegal drug has increased to 16 percent this year from 14.5 percent in 2009, a survey on drug abuse says. Marijuana use is also up among high school seniors, sophomores and eighth-graders, according to the survey. The Monitoring the Future Survey by the National Institute on Drug

Investigators stopped Adam Guzman on a traffic violation last week. Officials say Guzman had 5 bundles of marijuana on him. Guzman was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana over 5 pounds.

Christmas came early for a group of kids today. The second annual operation Santa Drop took place on the football field of Anthony High School. Hundreds of students from Anthony Elementary School screamed and cheered as Saint Nick was dropped from a helicopter early this morning. Santa gave each student a gift and handed them

The State has rested its case in the murder trial of 51-year-old Kenneth Rauch. Rauch is accused of shooting and killing an El Paso man, Euzebio Escobedo, at a Las Cruces convenience store in 2005. Prosecutors say he walked up to Escobedo’s car and fired a shot into the hood before shooting through the window.

911 lines, telephone and internet service are back online in Southern New Mexico, after a massive outage Tuesday night. A third-party crew accidentally cut two Qwest Communications cables in Socorro and Tijeras, knocking out service for thousands of New Mexicans. The outage mostly affected Sprint and Nextel customers in Dona Ana County, the City of

The Notre Dame Club of El Paso is proud to welcome the University of Notre Dame as they partake in the 2010 Hyundai Sun Bowl. Since the official bowl announcement, club officers have been working feverishly to organize and create events that will not only welcome the thousands of Irish visitors to El Paso, but

It’s a Borderland favorite and an El Paso holiday tradition, but this year, a few grinches are putting a damper on the annual Christmas lights display in the Eastridge neighborhood. “Lights will get broken or something will get unplugged, but it doesn’t deter us,” Isis Hernandez said. “We keep going.” For 14 uears, Hernandez has

El Paso City Council is introducing an amendment to the controversial, voter-approved ordinance that would keep gay and unmarried partners of city employees from obtaining health benefits. The amendment calls for those who have had benefits since Nov. 10 to keep them. Domestic partners who are seeking benefits under their partners’ plan won’t be allowed

Fiber lines cuts in two locations has affected a large portion of southern New Mexico. The outage is affecting phone service, 911 and Internet service. According to a Qwest spokesman, the fiber cuts occurred at Tijeras and Socorro, New Mexico by a third party. Crews are at the scene and everything should be repaired at

The health care benefits battle continued at El Paso City Council this week. Tuesday, a proposal was introduced that would allow the domestic partners and dependent children of current city employees to keep their health insurance. A voter-passed initiative, put on the ballot by a petition from local religious group, El Pasoans for Traditional Family

El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen will hold monthly meetings with the media, but it wasn’t his idea. Allen said it was something that was forced upon him by El Paso City Manager Joyce Wilson. “I think I might be trivializing your time and mine in some of these instances, because I think, on a

Click here for UTEP, New Mexico Bowl Special Section. The UTEP football team will depart for Albuquerque on Wednesday morning and take on a BYU team that has won four of its last five games in the fifth annual New Mexico Bowl on Saturday. Kickoff is slated for 12:04 p.m. MT at University Stadium. The

Be sure to leave an extra cookie or two for Santa this year. Zillow, a free online real estate Website, has compiled a list of Santa’s favorite cities to visit on Christmas Eve and El Paso made the top 10 list. El Paso came in at No. 6, while Phoenix and Albuquerque also made the

A city bus driver in Champaign-Urbana has quit over a hit and run… of a snowman, the NBC affiliate in Chicago repoted. The resignation followed a meeting with officials of the transit company, who saw a video posted of the driver recklessly plowing over the snow creation on the University of Illinois campus. Watch video

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s Cyber Crimes Unit arrested El Paso resident Miguel Eduardo Gomez, 34, on federal child pornography possession charges. In 1994, Gomez was convicted in Virginia for sexually assaulting an eight-year-old male, so he has been registering as a sex offender since 1995. Search for registered sex offenders here. The Minnesota Bureau

El Paso Police have identified the 18-year-old man that was shot and killed in Northeast El Paso Friday night. Julio Barrios, of 11000 Wedge Lane, was shot at the 5700 block of Tropicana. Investigators continue to investigate the fifth murder of the year. Investigators have asked any person with information related to this latest murder

Lovers of the famous Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece Mona Lisa have been wondering about the secret behind those sly eyes for hundreds of years, but few if any ever thought they could contain an actual code. But that’s the latest theory put forth by experts who claimed they have uncovered tiny letters and numbers hidden