DEAR PROBE

Whatever happened to the man who confessed to a killing in New Mexico?

Q

Probe seems to be getting back in the habit of answering reader’s questions about things that for one reason or another have fallen off the radar. So I thought I’d ask about the man who was accused of shooting to death a woman from New Mexico in the Slabs last year. It seems the man had also confessed to another killing in New Mexico earlier that year as well. Was his trial ever covered locally? Has that New Mexico case been resolved? — Still Stunned, Slab City

A

Clayton Jones is currently serving 37 years to life in prison as a result of having entered a no contest plea to premeditated first-degree murder with a firearm on Oct. 20, 2016 in connection to the April 29, 2016 shooting death of 39-year-old Shalon Lee Gheen, of the Taos, N.M. area.

Jones’ plea deal precluded a trial, and he was last in court locally in Dec. 2016 for sentencing, so the Press never got around to covering any sort of trial.

For those who may have forgotten, Jones and Gheen had reportedly arrived in the Slabs area from a similar off-thegrid community in the Taos area known as the Mesa shortly before the deadly incident. A verbal altercation reportedly had preceded Jones’ shooting of Gheen. Jones reportedly had fired upon nearby witnesses, which resulted in two counts of assault with a firearm as well, the county District Attorney’s Office reported.

Shortly after his April 2016 arrest, Jones had reportedly confessed to county Sheriff’s Office investigators to the murder of Naomi Chaney, a 36-year-old Taos County, N.M., woman who had disappeared earlier in the year, Taos County, N.M., court records stated.

A second Carson Estates, N.M., man, identified as Albert Jean Hunsaker, was also implicated in the murder or Chaney, whose body has yet to have been found.

Hunsaker had recently pleaded guilty conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, a second-degree felony, and tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony, in March in connection to Chaney’s disappearance, according to New Mexico media reports.

Taos County, N.M., authorities also reportedly told Taos media outlets that charges against Jones will be pursued upon his return to the state.