Hide Article Text (OCR)
By Bill Southard Managing Editor Dumas Joe (Boots) Inman, 63, will be transported to the New Mexico State Penitentiary Tuesday to begin serving a 10 to 50-year sentence for the Dec. 18, 1978, slaying of his wife, Elizabeth Ann (Betty) Inman, 4. Inman, whose first-degree murder trial was to begin this morning, entered a plea of guilty to second-degree murder even as District Court Clerk Enola Echols was calling the roll of the jury panel. Judge Stanley Frost of Tucumcari, sitting by designation after the disqualification of Reuben Nieves and the recusal of Fred Hensley, pronounced the sentence on Inman, noting that the defendant would receive credit for pre-sentence con finement time. Ross Sanchez and Tom Harden, attorneys for Inman, conferred with District Attorney Norman Runyan of Tucumcari concerning the plea to second-degree murder and he asked Judge Frost if he would permit the defendant to enter a nolo contendere (no contest) plea to the second degree charge. Judge Frost said no, and the attorneys went back to their client and conferred again. Moments later they and and the defendant entered the judge's chambers to announce Inman's willingness to plead to the second-degree charge. The judge asked Inman if he understood what he was doing by pleading guilty and Inman said “Yes. Frost then asked the defendant, a small man with a seamed face and red rimmed eyes, to relate what he had done on Dec. 18, 1978. In broken narrative, Inman said he had a check and needed his estranged wife, Elizabeth Ann, to co-sign it. Then he said that she had taken some things that belonged to him and he went to attempt to get them back. “She had sold my teevee,”’ he told the court. “‘Then she had me throwed in jail with the objective of ripping me off again.” Concerning the Dec. 18 in cident, Inman said he did not go to his wife's house (at 708 12 N. Prince) with the intention of killing her. “She was not worth killing,’ he said. ‘But the provocation came up.” He said Mrs. Inman had shot him in the groin a couple of years ago, ‘‘so I took the gun with me.” Inman said he shot her twice, but he seemed unsure of where the shooting occurred, saying that he understood witnesses to say that the first shot was fired in the house. She was shot again as she tried to get away from Inman, and died on a concrete driveway at the corner of Eighth and Prince streets. Judge Frost said he would accept the plea of guilty to second-degree murder and immediately sentenced Inman to the pen for 10 to 50 years. Both defense attorneys of fered background on the problems that had occurred between Boots and Betty Inman. Attorney Harden said she shot him in the groin a couple of years ago and then went around bragging about it. She said she wished she had killed him, Harden said, and added that Inman would have died from the wound if he hadn't received immediate aid. They had filed for divorce and she was living with another man, Harden told the court. Sanchez said Mrs. Inman had obtained a marriage license on Dec. 27, 1976, to marry a man named J. R. Banks. Inman attempted to file a bigamy complaint against her, he said, but the incident occurred in Lubbock, Texas, and he was not (See INMAN, Page 2 union. “Our committee's ad vocating that we not make a last ditch stand, ’ an aide to TDU leader Ken Paff said in Detroit on Sunday after the 1,600-member Local 800 voted here to return to work The vote came as support for the month-long strike waned in the East, where some non striking union members had already resumed hauling general freight and steel. The strike had kept many of the Teamsters’ estimated 17,000 steel haulers idle since April 1, and forced the layoff of some 6,000 mill workers because steel shipments were bottled up. Steel haulers in Youngstown, Ohio, were scheduled to vote on a possible return to work today, TDU said. Members of steel-hauling Local 92 in Canton, Ohio, voted Sunday to end the strike if holdout companies signed the agreement and agreed to immediate pay for six days’ retroactive sick pay negotiated in the proposed agreement. “In Gary (Ind.) they'll be in full operation Monday. In Detroit, Cleveland, Canton (Ohio) and Erie (Pa.) they don't think they're going to be able to hold up past Monday,”’ one spokesman said The Teamsters’ 300,000 drivers ended a 10-day walkout April 10, but steel haulers defied a back-to-work order, demanding a separate vote on their provisions in the proposed master freight agreement Local 800 Secretary- Treasurer Charles Carelli said work would not resume im mediately at about gi Pitt sburgh-area National Steel Carriers members who had not settled as of Sunday. But he predicted quick agreements once other trucks started rolling. The proposed contract offers company drivers and owner operators a flat percentage of the gross revenue on long distance loads. Applying current freight rates to the proposed contract, an owner-operator’s earnings hauling a 50,000-pound load of steel from Pittsburgh to Chicago would rise from $460 to $521, Carelli said. A union member driving a company truck on the same trip would earn $185 instead of $159, he said. SENTENCED—Duman Joe (Boots) Inman (right) was sentenced today to 10 to 50 years in the state penitentiary for the Dec. 18, 1978, shooting death of his wife, 44-year old Elizabeth Ann Inman, in Clovis. Inman pleaded guilty to a charge of second-degree murder moments before his trial on a first-degree charge was to begin. He is shown shortly after his arrest. At left is Clovis Detective Sgt. Lance Somers. ‘(News-Journal Photo)
Newspaper Details
Clovis News Journal
Clovis, New Mexico, US
Mon, Apr 30, 1979
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Brandi R.
USA 17 Sep 2026
Other Publications Near Clovis, New Mexico
Clovis News Journal
Clovis Evening News Journal
Clovis New Mexico Evening News Journal
The Eastern New Mexico News
The Clovis News
