Rancher Gets Prison for Armed Encounter with Utility Workers
10/6/2017
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – A 56-year-old northern New Mexico rancher faces a year and a half in prison after being sentenced for a carjacking conviction stemming from an armed confrontation with utility company workers on his property.
Richard Howieson of Costilla in Taos County was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty April 17 in the Feb. 19, 2013 incident.
Howieson acknowledged in a plea agreement that he brandished a loaded pistol after confronting the two utility workers who said they had permission to cut a lock and go onto his property to install fiber optic cable.
He also acknowledged he didn’t let the workers take their truck when he ordered them off his property and that he fired his pistol in another direction as they walked away.
Related News
From Archive
Sign up to Receive Our Newsletter
- HDD industry faces challenges as cities push back on fiber drilling disruptions
- 2 workers killed, 1 injured while working on sewer line in Mobile, Ala.
- $5.3 billion, 516-mile pipeline to connect Texas to Arizona through New Mexico
- Tunnel boring continues under Chesapeake Bay for $3.9 billion HRBT Expansion project
- Judge approves construction for key portion of $485 million pipeline in Larimer County, Colo.
- New products: Latest industry developments
- 31 workers rescued after LA tunnel partially collapses
- Ohio Supreme Court rules sewer line location isn’t a ‘defect’ in property dispute
- Faulconer Construction begins rock blasting for water pipeline project in Charlottesville, Va.
- $5.3 billion, 516-mile pipeline to connect Texas to Arizona through New Mexico
Comments