Roswell Daily Record
Vol. 122, No. 206 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
INSIDE NEWS
1963 MARCH INSPIRED LATINOS ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — As thousands of marchers made their way to the nation’s capital in August 1963 for what was officially billed as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom... - PAGE B4
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
August 28, 2013
WEDNESDAY
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Largest county gives same-sex licenses TAOS (AP) — Dozens of gay couples gathered at a plaza in New Mexico’s biggest city Tuesday to hear the words many once thought they would never hear: “With the power finally vested in me by the state of New Mexico, I now pronounce you married.” The ceremony came just a few hours after the county clerk opened her door to a line of more than 100 people waiting to get same-
sex marriage licenses following an Albuquerque judge’s declaration Monday that gay marriage was legal. Two other counties began issuing marriage licenses to gay couples last week, and three more said they planned to do the same. Russell Garcia and Chayne Avery were among the couples who tied the knot in Albuquerque. They said it was the culmination
of a long journey since they met in college 20 years ago — when there were hardly any gay characters on television, let alone the prospect that they could someday marry. “Never thought I’d experience this,” said an emotional Garcia, 40, after the ceremony. The ruling by state District Judge Alan Malott came on the heels of a similar decision in Santa Fe
and the decision by the county clerk in the southern New Mexico county of Dona Ana last week to recognize same-sex couples. That means residents in the state’s three largest counties can easily get same-sex marriage licenses locally. Gay couples can now get married in about a dozen states after a series of court fights, ballot measures and legislative decisions provid-
Green and serene
TOP 5 WEB
For The Past 24 Hours
•.Chaves Co. stands against gay marriages •.Alzheimer’s fundraiser draws 700 •.Roswell’s Most Wanted •.Man receives six months for 20 counts... •.Pearce announces bid for re-election
SPORTS Mark Wilson Photo
A green frog sunbathes while resting atop a water lily at the J. Kenneth Smith Bird Sanctuary & Nature Center, Tuesday.
Fort Hood gunman won’t call witnesses
ALAMOGORDO — To anyone who has watched a great athlete play their respective sport, think about that game. Whether you watched Kobe Bryant in his prime or got to see... - PAGE B1
TODAY’S OBITUARIES
• Erica Marie Navarrette • Barry David Brown • Jesus Carrillo - PAGE A2
HIGH ...90˚ LOW ....67˚
TODAY’S FORECAST
CLASSIFIEDS..........B7 COMICS.................A8 ENTERTAINMENT...B10 FINANCIAL .............B6 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ......B10 LOTTERIES ............A2 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 STATE ...................B4 WEATHER ............A10
INDEX
US, France ready for military action against Syria
See LICENSES, Page A3
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Momentum appeared to build Tuesday for Western military action against Syria, with the U.S. and France saying they are in position for a strike, while the government in Damascus vowed to use all possible measures to repel it.
INSIDE
ROSWELL BOYS PICK UP 4-0 WIN
ed new momentum to the movement in recent years. New Mexico’s law has long been unclear, but the floodgates were opened last week when the Dona Ana County clerk began issuing marriage licenses and a judge in Santa Fe ordered the county clerk there to do so. And Republican Gov. Susana Martinez and Democratic Attorney General
FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) — The Army psychiatrist who fatally shot 13 people at Fort Hood decided not to present any evidence during his trial’s penalty phase on Tuesday even though jurors are deciding whether to sentence him to death. Maj. Nidal Hasan rested his case without calling witnesses or testifying to counter the emotional testimony from victims’ relatives, who talked of eerily quiet homes, lost futures, alcoholism and the unmatched fear of hearing a knock on their front door. Prosecutors hope the testimony helps convince jurors to hand down a rare military death sentence against Hasan, who was convicted last week for the
2009 attack that also wounded more than 30 people at the Texas military base. The judge dismissed jurors after Hasan declined to put up a defense. But she then asked Hasan more than two dozen questions in rapid fire, affirming that he knew what he was doing. His answers were succinct and just as rapid. “It is my personal decision,” he said. “It is free and voluntary.” The judge, Col. Tara Osborn, then read aloud several court opinions to back up her decision not to introduce evidence in Hasan’s favor on her own. “In other words, Maj. Hasan, you are the captain of your own ship,” Osborn See GUNMAN, Page A3
Feds to restore state
mineral payments
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Dozens of states will receive an estimated total of $110 million in mineral leasing payments from the federal government following a dispute over automatic spending cuts that drew a backlash from lawmakers in the West. Interior officials previously defended the cuts by saying they had no choice in the matter under budget rules now in place.
But they said Tuesday that a months-long legal review of the Mineral Leasing Act deter mined the money must be paid to states at a later date.
“It’s very clear those funds are not permanently canceled but withheld,” said Interior budget director Pam Haze.
Thirty-five states had been denied a portion of their payments for 2013, under automatic spending cuts put in place after Congress failed to agree on a deficit reduction plan.
The money is derived primarily from payments by companies for oil and gas leasing on federal lands and production royalties. Mineral leasing revenues are typically split about evenly between the states and the Interior DepartSee PAYMENTS, Page A3
The prospect of a dramatic U.S.-led intervention See SYRIA, Page A3
Courtesy photo
Jesse Marcel Jr. (left) poses for a photo with his daughter, Denice, at the UFO Museum during the 2013 UFO Festival.
Roswell crash debris witness dies JILL MCLAUGHLIN RECORD STAFF WRITER
Jesse Marcel Jr., the son of the U.S. Air Force intelligence officer who first investigated the crash site found by Mac Brazel at a ranch near Roswell in July 1947, died of an apparent heart attack at his home in Montana, Saturday. Marcel was one of the last living original witnesses to put his hands on the crash debris. The retired U.S. Navy veteran of the Cuban Missile Crisis and Montana National Guardsman, who later served as a helicopter flight surgeon at 68 years old in Iraq, is wellknown for sharing his firsthand account of his experience with the crash debris. “He was consistent,” said Stanton Friedman, a nuclear physicist and the original civilian investigator of the Roswell incident. “He was not an
attention seeker. He would speak out when many people won’t. He could have said, ‘I don’t need that trouble.’” As a 10-year -old boy and only child of Marcel Sr., Marcel recalls waking up in his small Roswell home to find his father and mother in the kitchen, surrounded by scattered pieces of thin metallic pieces that looked like foil, mixed with some straight metallic pieces that he thought looked like I-beams. He described some pieces that he said were marked on one side with strange hieroglyphic-like symbols with a kind of violet or purple hue to them. Other pieces were black plastic. His father, Maj. Jesse Marcel, an intelligence of ficer with the 509th Bombardment Group at the Roswell Ar my Air Field, instructed him and his mother to search carefully through the wreck-
age to look for any familiar electronic components, such as tubes, resistor condensers or wire. They found none. That was the last time the debris was seen by civilians. “He actually handled pieces,” Friedman said. “After stopping at home, then the lid came down. He had to tell junior, ‘Don’t talk about this.’ Being a military brat, Jesse followed orders.” After a civilian investigation began uncovering the events in the 1980s and ’90s, Marcel began talking about his father’s and his experience. He authored “The Roswell Legacy.” He recently visited Roswell in July to promote the book and was available for signings and lectures. T raveling wasn’t easy for him, but the trip was special, Friedman said. See MARCEL, Page A3