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341ST DISTRICT COURT
FALCON LAKE
Pleading guilty
Hearing to look at declining lake bass
Man to serve 30 years in death of Zapata native By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES
LAREDO — A man accused of stabbing to death a Zapata native in South Laredo has pleaded guilty to murder Tuesday in the 341st District Court, the Webb County district attorney’s office announced late Thursday. Luis Jimenez, 33, pleaded guilty to killing Roberto Carlos Benavides before Judge Rebecca “Beckie” Palomo. Prosecutors and the defense agreed for Jimenez to serve a 30-year sentence in pris-
on, court records show. Jimenez will be sentenced at 8 a.m. Monday. Benavides’ mother discovered her son stabbed to death Feb. 9, 2012, in his bedroom at a home located JIMENEZ in the 3500 block of Cuatro Vientos Drive. The mother, Maria Herlinda Benavides, went to check on her son since he had not returned phone calls and had not gone to work, according to court records. Police said they later learned that Ji-
BENAVIDES
menez stabbed Benavides because Benavides “wanted to be intimate with him,” according to the criminal complaint. Police found Benavides with multiple stab wounds to the left side of his neck, head and shoulder, according to
prosecutors. Before leaving town to California, Jimenez confessed to a female cousin that
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Some think alligator gar is to blame for fewer bass SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE
SIGNING ALL THE HITS Her fingers ‘sing’ for the deaf
AUSTIN — State Representative Ryan Guillen (D- District 31) and State Representative Tracy King (D- District 80) will be jointly hosting a field hearing in Zapata to discuss issues related to the declining bass population in Falcon Lake, on Friday. The hearing will be held at the Zapata Technical and Advanced Education Center, room 128, 605 North U.S. Highway 83, at 1:30 p.m. The hearing is also open to the public for oral and written testimony. Falcon Lake Reservoir, located in Starr and Zapata counties, has had a historically strong largemouth bass population and has received global recognition as a prime fishing location for the species. However, in recent years the bass population in Falcon Lake has declined. The issue was first brought to light by local
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By ALYSON WARD
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HOUSTON CHRONICLE
H
OUSTON — Amber Galloway Gallego was in bed when a friend texted her: “Turn on Jimmy Kimmel.” “I was like, ‘Why?”’ said Galloway Gallego, who lives in Houston. Then she flipped on the late-night talk show and saw herself on TV. Kimmel was showing a clip of Galloway Gallego on stage at Lollapalooza, dancing and doing sign language as rapper Kendrick Lamar rapped expletives. An audience member had captured about a minute of her performance, shaky camera and all, and posted it on YouTube. In the nine months since that Chicago music fest, Galloway Gallego’s sign-language
JAIME J. ZAPATA
Photo by Marie D. De Jesus/Houston Chronicle | AP
Amber Galloway Gallego, 37, a sign language instructor at Houston Community College, signs “interpreting” on April 23. Gallego specializes in interpreting music. She signs to make concerts accessible to the deaf. spectacle has been viewed about 4 million times on YouTube. With a rapper’s swagger, she lets it fly, signing rapidfire lyrics and dirty words that look like dirty words. Her
performance is lewd. It is startlingly, hilariously cool. It’s also her job. Galloway Gallego, an American Sign Language interpreter who specializes in music,
has done the same thing at hundreds of concerts. She’s hired to stand at the side of the stage and interpret Ma-
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PAGE 7A
ZAPATA HIGH SCHOOL
Class of ’64 members eye reunion By MALENA CHARUR THE ZAPATA TIMES
Members of the Zapata High School Class of 1964 are scheduling a reunion in June to celebrate their 50th anniversary of graduation from high school. The Class of 1964 had 30 people, according to alumnus Dora Martinez. “We’ve been trying to find as many people as we can,”
MARTINEZ
GRACIA
Martinez said. “We know that some have changed addresses, and unfortunately others have died.
“We hope to hold the reunion at the Steak House Restaurant in Zapata on Wednesday, June 25,” Martinez said. Organizers hope the reunion will allow class members to recall their days as students and catch up with each other on the paths their lives have taken. “I remember wanting (to study) medicine, but I had had an internship with a doctor
and realized that at least it was not for me,” Martinez said. “Anyway, I made a career in the medical field but as a technician in the laboratory.” She said she later studied journalism, operated a Hispanic-oriented newspaper in San Antonio, and was the first female promotor of artists in Texas.
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PAGE 7A
30 receive money for education By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ LAREDO MORNING TIMES
LAREDO — ICE Special Agent Jaime J. Zapata would have turned 36 years old Tuesday. But his life was cut short Feb. 15, 2011, when suspected Zetas drug cartel members ambushed him and a fellow agent in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. To celebrate his birthday, his parents, Amador and Mary Zapata, came to Laredo to give away scholarZAPATA ships in their son’s honor Wednesday afternoon at the Guerra Communication Reception Hall. The Zapata family and the Friends and Jaime J. Zapata committee presented scholarships to 30 students from Laredo, Mercedes, San Antonio, San Ygnacio and Zapata. Laredo Community College students and siblings Katheryn Tytler, 16, and Stephen Tytler, 17, both of Nigeria, said they were honored to receive the award.
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