New Mexico board denies Las Cruces murderer’s parole

The lone survivor of a quadruple murder in Las Cruces is breathing a sigh of relief. The New Mexico Adult Parole Board denied parole to the murderer, Clifton Skidgel.

For more than three decades, Jackie Nicole Nasiatka dreaded ever seeing her stepfather, the man who killed her family.

Last week, Nasiatka heard his voice for the first time since that horrible night.

“The voice is what did me in. That’s what got me. And then everything he ever did to you flashes before your very eyes within just a few seconds and I can’t tell you how scared that can make somebody, but I was terrified,” she told ABC-7.

Nasiatka has two sisters who were not there the night of the massacre. Nasiatka and one of the sisters went to Santa Fe last week to fight Skidgel’s parole bid.

They couldn’t see him, but they could hear him.

“There was absolutely no remorse whatsoever. I see a man that sees himself as the victim. He’s the victim. He had outbursts. It was all, ‘liar, liar, liar,'” Nasiatka said.

In September 1979, Skidgel got a rifle and killed his wife Sharon and three of her children: Jimmy, 13; Richard, 8; and Gayla, 16.

Skidgel also shot Nasiatka, who was 11 at the time. She was the only survivor.

Now 34 years later, she’s still terrified of the idea of him getting out of prison.

“Do I believe he would kill again? Yes I do, even more so now than I did. Do I believe that if he ever got out he would come after me? Even more so than I did. He’ll never change,” she said.

Nasiatka said she’ll never forget the sound of the gunshots, the screaming, the smell of gunpowder. When she heard his voice last week, she was 11 years old again.

“Like the little girl that was terrified of him. Like I remember him even before the shooting. Just being terrified. You go back to thinking with that child’s mind because that’s what it forces you to do,” she said.

Terry Giever, Nasiatka’s friend, worried about Skidgel being released from prison. He said if Skidgel’s parole was approved, he likely would have ended up in Las Cruces or Alamogordo.

After the board denied Skidgel’s parole, Nasiatka and her sisters said they can breathe easy for now. In a year, Skidgel will get another parole hearing.

“I want to dwell on the fact that we get a year, a whole year. I want to remember that and be happy for once in my life,” Nasiatka said.

Nasiatka expected the board to take up to two weeks to make a decision. It only took two days.

As for next year, she said she’ll be there again, and now she knows what to expect.