The Odessa American from Odessa, Texas • 11

0 'Space1 mlnlseries, Page 6 Contributions to candidates, Page 7 Midland man slain, Page 8 Thursday, July 19, 1984 THE ODESSA AMERICAN Odessa's crime takes 16 percent tumble Q) Crime Statistics: January to July comparison Aggravated Assault Robbery Murder Rap 13. 20. 200. 190. 13 124 158 12.

12a 15 15 13. ISO. 126 90. 10. 100.

00. 52 30. 30. '83 '84 '83 '83 '84 '84 '83 '84 By JOHN WATKINS Staff Writer The city of Odessa's crime rate declined in the first six months of this year, continuing a trend that started in 1983, Police Department statistics show. Statistics on Ector County crime during the same period will not be available until Friday, Sheriff's Capt.

Larry Crawford said today. Police Department statistics show 16 percent fewer crimes were reported in the first half of 1984 than the same time period in 1983. Total 1983 figures revealed an 11 percent decline from 1982. The city, designated by a national handgun control group as "Murder Capital U.S.A." for 1982, experienced a decline in the homicide rate of about 54 percent from the first half of last year to the first six months of this year, the figures show. There were six homicides reported in the city during the Baker said.

Assistant District Attorney J.E. Weatherly said police taking criminals off the street through "vigorous law enforcement" and the courts sentencing more people to jail terms has contributed to the decline in the crime rate. "In 1983, there was a group of professional criminals taken off the street" in various cases prosecuted by his office, Weatherly said. "Several long-time criminals" were convicted last year, he said. Baker said the number of robbery cases solved was 65 percent lower in the first half of this year than 1983 because police often can solve a string of robberies by arresting one or two people.

As a result, the number of cases solved can vary widely, he said. But the declining crime rate doesn't ease all of Baker's worries, he said. "They're going down, but how far down will they go before they start going up?" he said. SOURCE: Odessa Police Department Odessa American declining crime rate, Baker added. "They're not moving in and out like they were" during the 1982 boom.

"The public is more willing to get involved" by calling police when they see something suspicious and participating in programs like Neigborhood Watch and Crime Stoppers, creased "presence of police officers is having an effect," noting the department was bolstered by 65 officers in 1983. He said Wednesday that although the force still is 18 officers short of the authorized strength of 202, the bigger staff has increased police visibility. A more stable population is "the next biggest factor" in the first six months of this year, compared with 13 during the same period last year. The homicide rate peaked in 1982 with 27 for the entire year, records show. The number of rapes reported this year equaled the same period in 1983 at 15, statistics show.

Aggravated assaults crimes involving a weapon or serious bodily injury declined about 20 percent, from 158 to 126 Robberies showed the sharpest decline, from 124 to 52, a 58 percent drop, the figures show. Burglaries declined 15 percent, from 1,213 to 1,033, reports of theft of more than $50 dropped by 10 percent, theft less than $50 by 22 percent and auto theft was down 21 percent, statistics show. Police Lt. Rusty Baker said in Jury likely to get rape case today By TIM MADIGAN Staff Writer MALDEF lawsuit dropped Pecos resuming charter meetings Jurors likely will choose today between the stories of a woman who claimed she was dragged last year from her home and raped vs. her alleged assailant who said the woman willingly had sex with him.

The 70th Judicial District Court jury is expected to begin delibera tions today in the aggravated rape trial of Thomas Capps, 35, who allegedly barged into a west Odessa woman's home early Aug 20, 1983, forced her from the residence to his home and raped her. lit, wm If convicted, Capps has decided to have the jury assess his punish ment. Aggravated rape, a first-degree felony, carries a maxium sentence of life in prison. Kimmel, Shell's Wasson Complex manager, examines injection site ByLAURASTONE Staff Writer PECOS The city of Pecos charter commission will begin meeting again now that plaintiffs have dropped a 15-month-old single-member district lawsuit against the city. Charter commission Chairman A.B.

Foster said today he expects to call a meeting within the next twoweeks. The commission stopped meeting after attorneys for the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund filed suit against the city and the Pecos-Barstow-Toyah school district. The April 21, 1983, suit contended City Council members and school trustees should be elected by single-member districts rather than at large. The system means only registered voters residing in a designated district would elect a representative of that district. But last week, Frank Perea under whose name MALDEF filed the suit agreed to drop an appeal.

Perea could not be reached for comment by early today. Jose Garza, a MALDEF attorney, confirmed Wednesday that "we filed a motion with the Fifth Circuit (Court of Appeals in New Orleans) to dismiss the appeal." San Antonio-based MALDEF legal counsel conferred with Perea and attorneys in San Francisco before deciding to drop the suit, Garza said. "All things considered, including the growing (Hispanic) Please see PECOS, Page 3B C02 plant extends oil field life Final arguments, scheduled to begin today at 9 p.m., were delayed as court officials resolved snags in presiding judge Gene Ater's jury instructions. The trial that opened Tuesday has been marked by sharply contrasting testimony from the alleged victim and Capps. The 33-year-old woman has testified Capps, who she met at a bar six months earlier, came to her home several hours before the alleged assault claiming to have a message from friends.

He left after she refused to join him for drinks, she testified. But about 1:30 a.m. Aug. 20, 1983, she was awakened by pounding at the front door of her trailer home. While on the telephone with the Ector County Sheriff's Department, Capps shattered the door and entered her bedroom, she testified.

Capps then dragged her by the hair from her home, drove her to his residence and raped her. Several times during the incident, Capps threatened to kill her PleaseseeTRIAL, Page3B in southwestern Colorado, $480 million to construct the 500-mile Cortez Pipeline to carry the C02 to West Texas and another $220 million for injection and treatment facilities at the Denver Unit, he said. In the next 25 to 30 years, the company expects to pump another $1 billion into the tertiary recovery project. Construction of the pipeline was completed in December 1983, and Shell began full-scale injection of C02 Into the Denver Unit in April. The company expects the first of two C02 recycling plants to be finished by April 1985.

Shell currently is injecting about 210 million cubic feet of C02 a day into the Denver Unit. By the end of the year, Kimmel PleaseseeOlL, Page3B Production Manager George Carlson said. Carlson said success of the tertiary recovery method has important economic consequences for the Permian Basin and the United States. Estimates on the additional oil that can be recovered in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico range up to 3 billion barrels and up to a total 5 billion barrels nationwide, hesaid. "We are reaching a lot of technical highs in this project that we are excited about," Kimmel said.

While C02 recovery is not new, Kimmel said the Wasson Field project represents the largest undertaking to date. So far, Shell has spent close to $1 billion $220 million to develop the C02 source fields By SUSAN HAMMONS Staff Writer DENVER CITY Preliminary results of a $1 billion carbon dioxide oil recovery project here indicate the life of at least one Permian Basin oil field can be extended into the 21st century. "We're confident this process will work and recover significant amounts of oil out of this reservoir," Joe Kimmel, Wasson Complex manager for the Mid Continent Division of Shell Western said Wednesday. Using C02 to extract oil trapped in pockets in the Denver Unit of the Wasson Field near Denver City, located about 85 miles northwest of Odessa, Shell expects to begin retrieving the first crude within 2V4 years, Home-grown filly runs for Rainbow Futurity roses Mas By KEN BRODNAX of 440 yards, but did comment, "The farther you go, the better she likes It." Miss Mitedo is giving Ham his biggest racing thrills. And he's proud he didn't have to spend big money to get her.

"You've got to have a lot of luck, but it goes to show you don't have to have a lot of money to get a runner." In fact, he's owned her mother, Decks Dainty Lady, for years. The father is Kaweah Sunrise, a stud at another Gardendale horse facility, Winner-maker Farms. Miss Mltedo won the West Texas Futurity at Sunland Park this spring, but skipped the other big race for 2-year-olds there, the Sun Country Futurity, because, Ham said, he's being careful. She posted the two top times at $30 yards during the Sunland season and, in colts and get down to the top 10, you've got to think you've got a good horse." Ham's definition of a top racer combines several factors. "They've got to have the ability and got to have the heart.

And they've got to have a good mind not to beat themselves. She seems to have it all." i That doesn't mean the proud owner is confident of victory. "The fastest horse doesn't always win," he pointed out. Ham, a production superintendent for Big Six Drilling said he's always looked to horses as a future investment. "When I started out, it was kind of a sideline.

I wanted to do when I retired. I don't ever want to quit work. "All these years, me and my wife both worked and we put most of what we made into these horses." As nest eggs go, Miss Mitedo Just might do. fastest 400-yard time in the past 10 years at Ruidoso. "She's proved she's the fastest thing up there," he said.

Miss Mltedo is the second fastest qualifier among the field of 10. She ran a 19.820 in her trial heat to win by 1 lengths while Cash for Sis, another filly, had a 19.770 clocking for the best time. Ham's horse missed qualifying for the first leg of the quarter horse Triple Crown, the Kansas Futurity, when she had to run through a particularly muddy part of the track during the trials. She still won her division, but came up about three-hundredths of a second shy of the time needed to get into the finals. But reaching the Rainbow finals makes Ham happy enough.

"We really feel privileged to be running with the caliber of colts up there. They're the best the world. When you start with 450 J.W. "Bild" Ham was surveying the latest crop of foals at his Gardendale horse farm a couple of years ago when he noticed something special about one of the baby quarter horses. Normally, he sells most of the young produced by his 14 brood mares instead of racing them himself.

"If we have one left, we Just run it." But Ham, who has worked with horses tor about 15 years, spotted a quality he liked in that one young filly. So he commented to his wife, Ruth, "You know, this filly might do." As it turned out. Ham made a wise decision and named the horse, all in one sentence. Their pride and Joy, Miss Mltedo, has already earned almost $75,000 In six trips to the starting gate. Every visit has produced a victory.

The filly's biggest chance comes Sunday when she will be one of the favorites to take htfcne the $268,843 winner's purse in the Rainbow Futurity at Ruidoso Downs, N.M. Even a last-place finish would raise her earnings to almost $100,000. And there''! still the matter of the $1 million that goes to the victor in the All-American Futurity on Labor Day. She's going to make a try for that race, too. Ham's not looking ahead to a big pay day that comes with the longlr distance theirst round of Rainbow trials, rta the.