Arizona Daily Star from Tucson, Arizona • Page 9

Editor: Tim Koiiski Teh-phone 520-573-4101 Fax 573-4107 E-mail SECTION Tuesday January 9, 2001 ARIZONA DAILY STAR SERVING PIMA, COCHISE, SANTA CRUZ AND PINAL COUNTIES WIDENING CONTROVERSY Judge stays execution of Salvadoran 1 A i whether a man should be executed," she said. "We should be allowed a hearing to contest his opinion." Soon after his arrival from El Salvador, Amaya-Ruiz was working as a stable hand at the ranch of Mark and Kimberly Lopez. On March 28, as the pregnant Kimberly was talking to her sister on the phone, Amaya-Ruiz came in and stabbed her 23 times while chasing her throughout the home. He then used Kimberly's handgun to shoot her in the ear. SEE STAY B5 time, and sent to the state hospital in Phoenix.

But the hospital's chief medical officer, Dr. Jerry Dennis, issued an order in August 2000 declaring Amaya-Ruiz competent. Under state law, that's all the state needs to proceed with execution. Carla Ryan, an attorney for the condemned man, said that one doctor a state employee, at that should not be that powerful. "We feel that he should not have the right to determine, all by himself, By M.

Scot Skinner ARIZONA DAILY STAR A federal judge has stayed the scheduled Jan. 18 execution of Jose Amaya-Ruiz, a Salvadoran convicted of stabbing a pregnant Tucson woman to death in 1985. The inmate is entitled to a federal hearing to determine whether he is mentally competent for execution, according to the ruling issued Friday by Senior U.S. District Judge William D. Browning.

Amaya-Ruiz was declared mentally incompetent in 1998, for the third Jose Amaya-Rulz not fie executed Jan. 18 with his compen-tency In doubt. Help sought in slaying Jim Davit Staff Pipes are piled along Thornydale Road where county transportation officials bladed the desert, destroying ironwood and palo verde trees. Thornydale report faults county plans J- Y- i V. jf 1 a.

i road over a mid-November holiday weekend. County officials hope to resume work in two weeks on less sensitive sections. The design changes transportation officials suggested "were superficial and fell completely short of meeting compliance requirements," Huckelberry wrote. The report said transportation officials withheld key project details from the federal government despite constant requests for more than a year. County Transportation Director Brooks Keenan acknowledged yesterday that his department probably shared some responsibility for the project's problems but that the rest of the blame probably lies elsewhere.

He would not respond to specifics because he had not SEE ROAO B4 By Tony Davis ARIZONA DAILY STAR The North Thornydale Road widening "failure" stemmed from county Transportation Department officials' repeated failure to disclose how many trees they planned to tear down and where the land-clearing would occur, according to a new report from Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry. Huckelberry's report, released yesterday, charged that the $9 million Thornydale project failed because transportation officials were not sensitive to a new regulatory climate that is more strict on environmental issues. Construction in sensitive areas of the project is on hold until Aug. 1 because of negative fallout from the county's clearing of 113 ironwood trees for the i 6 Aaron J. Latham Staff Amy Larson, Hay 's daughter, is among those seeking help in solving the murder.

In the background at Larson 's house is a shrine to Hay. By Joseph Barrios Arizona Daily Star Paving at Orange Grove ties up traffic along 1-10 Forchildrenof RobynHay, killed at an eegee'slast March 26 in a robbery that netted about $800, 'it's been a year of wondering, Who did guard Grady Mitchell Towers was shot to death March 20 in an apparent robbery. The markings indicate the bullets were fired from the same semiautomatic handgun, police have said. Jason Paul Doty, 28, was indicted last year on suspicion of first-degree murder in connection with Towers' death and remains in jail. Doty is considered a suspect in Hay's death, police have said, but he has not been charged.

Sgt. Richard Vidaurri, Marana police spokesman, said a hair sample found at the restaurant was sent to the Arizona Department of Public Safety lab for testing. A blood sample recovered from the scene was sent to an out-of- state lab for testing. The DPS lab has a backlog. While police await the test re-sults.

investigators said yesterday they hope there are people in the area who know something about the crime and will come forward. Larson said 88-CRIME, an anonymous tips line, is still offering a $7,500 reward to anyone who provides information leading to an arrest and indictment in the case. "It's there. Take it. Who are you protecting? A murderer?" Larson asked rhetorically yesterday.

"I go through March 26th every day of my life. It's not going to stop." I Contact Joseph Barrios at 629-9412 or jbarriosazstarnet.com. The children of Robyn Hay, who was stabbed to death last year at an eegee's restaurant, are asking residents to come forward with any information that could help police close the case. "It's been a year of wondering, 'Who did Scott Larson, Hay's son, said at a news conference yesterday, adding that an arrest would be "the first step toward some real closure." Hay, 50, was found dead early March 26 at the eegee's at 7110 N. Thornydale Road.

About $800 was missing from the restaurant. Police found a bullet outside the restaurant. They have said its markings match those on shell casings found at Tohono Chul Park, where security zona Department of Transportation district engineer. The cause? An 18-foot-wide concrete paving machine that had to cross the road. "It almost looks like a train," Alvarez said.

"It's massive. People naturally slow down to watch. It's like an accident on the freeway people slow down to look at it" Off-duty law enforcement officers were called out to flag and stop traffic on the exit ramp SEE PAVING B5 By Anita McDIvItt ARIZONA DAILY STAR Traffic on westbound Interstate 10 trying to exit at Orange Grove Road slowed to a crawl for about a half-hour yesterday morning, causing a long line of cars to back up on the freeway. And it won't be the last time. Motorists should be prepared for additional traffic blockages like yesterday's "at Ina Road and every place there is a roadway we are going to pave in concrete," said Dennis Alvarez, Ari METRO BRIEFING Barrio Nostalgia beats reality Bonnie Henry Winter weather to reappear I Rain with snow in the mountains and cooler temperatures will remain in the Tucson area through the rest of the week, the National Weather Service reported.

The cold front will keep high temperatures in the upper 50s to low 60s through at least Saturday. Overnight lows should be in the low 40s to low 30s through Saturday. Today, the forecast is calling for rain in the lower elevations and snow accumulations of 4 to 8 inches above 7,000 feet The rain should taper off by tomorrow morning. A trace of rain was recorded at the Tucson International Airport last night. Friday and Saturday are looking to be the coldest days this week.

The forecast is calling for highs in the lower 50s Friday and mid-50s on Saturday. Lows those nights, will be in the 30s. Rain is forecast again for Saturday. along with snow in the higher elevations. TRAFFIC WATCH found out, he upended the brew.

Hubbard took off, hopping a train. For months at a time, he'd ride the rails, never letting his family know where he was. By the early '40s, he was back in town, where he met Emelia Curtis at the five and 10-cent store. They've now been married close to 60 years. Eventually, Hubbard started his own cabinet shop, Hubbard and Sons.

The six sons, all long gone, still smile out from their high school graduation photos, proudly lined up in the living room of Hubbard's South Side home. So what about the barrio he left so long ago? The roads are paved and lined with speed bumps in this strip of land running west of the railroad tracks, east of the freeway between Speedway and St. Mary's Road. Rose bushes and flowers bloom in some of the yards. Others bristle with "Keep Out" signs.

The Virgin of Guadalupe appears on several stuccoed walls. There are vacant lots as well as obvious signs of gentrification. The horses are long gone. What does remain is the adobe house Frank Hubbard's father built so many years before. Someone still lives there.

I Contact Bonnie Henry at 434-4074 or bhenryazstarnet.com, or write to 6781 N. Thornydale Road, Suite 239, Tucson 85741. yes, the barrio enshrined forever Al in the mists of nostalgia. UU Awww, can it, says Frank Hubbard, who remembers it a little differently: Irrigation ditches sluicing through the neighborhood, trains rattling the windows, dirt streets, outhouses, and a city dump and stables close by. "The city owned the stables," says Hubbard, who grew up on Anita Street in an adobe house his father built.

"They still had horse-drawn wagons for the garbage. They must have had 100-150 horses there." Born in 1915, Hubbard was one of six children. His mother was born in Mexico. Not a lick of English. His father, an Anglo, worked for the Southern Pacific.

"Dad was a carpenter for the SP. Back then, they built the cars out of wood in a big yard. He also worked on the tracks, changing wheels." The family home sported an outhouse in back and an outside spigot hooked to city water. "It was a dollar a month," says Hubbard. As a boy, Hubbard swam in the irrigation canals and told time by the trains.

"They came every 15 minutes, night and day. I knew when they would stop, when they would back up. We got used to it." Hobos fresh off the trains regularly slouched through Barrio Anita. "My mother would put a pan of water, a towel and soap on the porch," says Hubbard. "Then she'd put out a plate." Two buses, covered with canvas, lurched up and down the streets.

In the summer, everyone slept outside. Every Fourth of July, his father would hang the American flag and his mother would hang the flag of Mexico. Like every other kid in the neighborhood, Hubbard went to school at Davis Elementary and made his First Communion at Holy Family Catholic Church. "I picked up my English at catechism school." He never got past the fourth grade, a fact he still regrets today. For a while he helped his father tear down the boxcars.

"We took out every nail and straightened them. There were 25 nails in a board and each car had a thousand boards." The company let them keep the lumber. "One day they gave us the caboose," says Hubbard, who hauled it home with a little help from brother Danny. In it, the boys made bootleg beer. "At one time, every other house in Barrio Anita made beer." But not his father's house.

When his father ina $rp NT ORANGE I Beginning today, westbound traffic on West Ina Road turning left on the Interstate 10 frontage road and on-ramp will be reduced to one turn lane. Drivers should expect delays at the intersection. Uniformed officers will be on hand to direct traffic on the east-bound frontage road. i iurn lane VU 1 reduction I hi 1-r-. RUTHfjACFF WETfi0RJE ELCAMIN0 DEL CERR0 Staff.