The Santa Fe New Mexican from Santa Fe, New Mexico • A1

$1.00 Locally owned and independent Monday, April 30, 2018 www.santafenewmexican.com ProPosed merger effort to join with Sprint may face obstacles NatioN world, a-2 state baseball Robertson shocked with No. St. gets 7-seed SportS, B-1 169th year, No. 120 Publication No. 596-440design and headlines: Zach Taylor, main office: 983-3303 late paper: 986-3010 News tips: 986-3035 BReakiNg NewS aT www.saNtafeNewmexicaN.com index Pasapick a Starry Night Santa Fe Public Schools K-12 student bands, choirs, string orchestra, and other ensembles; 6:30 p.m.; Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W.

San Francisco $10, ticketssantafe.org, 505-988-1234. More events in Calendar, A-2 and Fridays in Pasatiempo today Mostly sunny. High 70, low 41. page a-7 www.pasatiempomagazine.com obituaries Georgia Ortiz, 79, Santa Fe, April 25 Adele Tometich, April 27 page a-6 Death penalty should remain relic in N.M. Officials stay quiet on death The late Thomas Ferguson received plenty of atten-tion in high places he would never have consideredvisiting.

He could not have known how often legislators at the state Capitol debated changing various criminal statutes because of him. Ferguson was a defendant in the torture and killing of 13-year-old Jeremiah Valencia in Santa Fe County. Detectives believe Ferguson was so sadistic that he held Jeremiah in a plastic dog ken- nel. Trapped in a hell on earth, the boy wore adult diapers as part of the humiliation that went along with beatings. An autopsy revealed that Jeremiah was in a diaper when inves- tigators found his body in a makeshift grave.

Jeremiah became a symbol of fail- ings in the corrections and child-welfare systems. And ex-con Ferguson provided fresh momentum for an initiative by Republican legisla- tors who wanted to reinstate death sentences. New Mexico lawmakers voted to repeal the death pen- alty in 2009, and then-Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, signed the bill into law. For most of the last eight years, a handful of Republican lawmakers have introduced measures to revive death sen- tences for certain murderers, specifically those who kill police officers, prison guards or children.

Ferguson would have seemed to fit the bill, if only half of what police and prosecutors said about him was true. The natural impulse after body was discovered Authorities did not reveal any more details Sunday as they continued to investigate the death of accused child- killer Thomas Wayne Ferguson, who was found hanging in his cell in the Santa Fe County Jail late Friday night. Santa Fe County Sheriff spokesman Juan Rios said the investigation into the death is and that there were no other details to release on Sunday. Santa Fe County spokeswoman Kristine Mihelcic said that county leaders were not planning to release any more information on Sunday, either. Ferguson, 42, was awaiting trial on a first-degree murder charge in the torture and killing in November of 13-year- old Jeremiah Valencia, the son of girlfriend, Tracy Ann death came shortly before he was to be transferred to a state-run prison to serve a nearly six-year sentence in a separate case.

Ferguson had pleaded not guilty to 17 felony counts and one misdemeanor charge in the Valencia case, which Calendar a-2 Classifieds B-4 Comics a-10 Crosswords B-9, B-10 Life Science a-8education a-5 Opinions a-9 Sports B-1 Time Out B-10 Thomas Wayne Ferguson, right, was found dead in his jail cell late Friday. Ferguson was accused of killing 13-year- old Jeremiah Valencia, his girl- son. The girlfriend, Tracy Ann and son, Jordan Anthony face charges in the killing. GAbrieLA CAMPoS NeW MexiCAN FiLe PHoto investigation ongoing into death of accused child-killer found hanging in cell, but no news yet, spokesman says by robert Nott The New Mexican Clyde Stinnett walks by an Amtrak train at the Lamy Depot, which is closing its obsolete ticket window. GAbrieLA NeW MexiCAN Ticket window is history at Lamy Amtrak station The online list of at the Amtrak station in Lamy is more a collection of what the historic train depot lacks.

No restrooms. No ATM. No Wi-Fi. No vending machines. No parking spaces.

No water fountain. a new addition: No ticket sales. Amtrak said Friday it plans to close the sales window at the century-old Mission Revival-style station, a casualty of chang- ing ticket-purchasing habits. The station itself, which functions as the Santa Fe stop on the Southwest Chief route between Chicago and Los Angeles, will remain on the line, despite some concerns to the contrary voiced recently by Santa Fe County officials. importance of this service in Lamy is not lost on said Marc Magliari, an Amtrak spokesman in Chicago.

Train will still stop there, but travelers will have to look online to purchase seats by tripp stelnicki The New Mexican Please see story on Page A-7 Milan Simonich Ringside Seat Birthing a new concept Nonprofit plans first Native childbirth facility, which would blend modern and ancient practices Nicolle Gonzales, a certified nurse midwife, examines a patient to determine the location of her 29-week-old fetus. Gonzales is working toward opening a birthing clinic in Pojoaque. centering Native women, centering women with Medicaid insurance, underin- sured, or no insurance because normally not accessible to get care like GAbrieLA NeW MexiCAN Emily Haozous came face toface with a troubling cir-cumstance as she preparedto give birth to her son in 2007: The Santa Fe Indian Hospital, where she had received care for most of her life, had shuttered its childbirth services. A graduate student at the time, Haozous, a member of the Fort Sill Apache Tribe, had no health insur- ance. Following her prenatal care through the federal Indian Health Service at the Santa Fe facility, she had to decide where she would deliver her infant and how to cover the costs.

She and her husband opted to pay $2,000 out of pocket for a home birth. really was said Haozous, a Santa Fe resident who now holds a doctorate in nursing and is an associate professor of nursing at The University of New Mexico. not like we had fountains of money falling out of the MaryAgnes Talache of Nambe Pueblo, a mother of five children and pregnant with her sixth, also by cynthia miller The New Mexican Please see story on Page A-7 Please see story on Page A-6 oN the weB Learn more about the Chang- ing Woman initiative at www. changingwomaninitiative.com or visit the Facebook page: www.facebook.com/ thechangingwomaninitiative. Visit blue Star integrative website at www.bsi.

studio; the Facebook page: www.facebook.com/ blueStarintegrativeStudio.Please see story on Page A-6 New Choice for Professional Hearing Care for Over 30 Years. Same and Next Day Appts Wireless Technology Newest Noise Cancellation Low Prices for Every Budget Kyle Bamberg BC-HIS Board Certified in Hearing Instrument Sciences1800 Old Pecos Trail, Ste. Santa Fe, NM 87505 SANTA FE OFFICE GRAND OPENING! Do you wish you could hear better? Call today for your FREE hearing evaluation 505-247-EARS (3277) MEDICAID MOST INSURANCE ACCEPTED www.HearOnEarthABQ.com.