Hostage recounts violent kidnapping

CLOVIS, N.M. (KRQE) - Police say the Clovis man accused of raping a woman, killing her fiance and then kidnapping two other women, chose his victims at random.

The suspect in the rampage has a violent criminal history with arrests for methamphetamine and more recently spice, the synthetic marijuana.

Now, the two hostages are attempting to recover emotionally while friends of murder victim Shondel Lofton mourn his loss.

"He never grew up; he was always a kid at heart," said Kelly Caselman, Lofton's close friend and employer.

That''s how those closest to Lofton remember him.

"He just had this bubbly kid personality," Caselman added.  "It was incredible."

Lofton was shot and killed Wednesday night inside his Clovis home. Police said the killer, Jimmy Reagan, 31, had just raped Lofton's fiancee in the yard after he asked her for money and she said she didn't have any.

She escaped as Lofton was gunned down, and Reagan ran across the street to find a getaway car.

Two women saw him running toward them with a gun. They jumped in their van to get away, but he jumped in with them.

"He kept pointing the gun at my forehead and the driver," said one of the hostages who asked that her name not be published. "He just kept pointing that gun."

The woman said it was a terrifying ride for her and that Reagan kept threatening to kill them.

The victim said her friend prayed aloud as Reagan directed them to drive faster.

"He would tell her to shut up, but she prayed," the woman recalled. "She said after she kept praying and praying that she felt like whatever was going to happen was going to happen, but she wasn't scared."

At one point the woman passenger was able to escape. She said Reagan then took her friend at gunpoint and after a short standoff with police was arrested.

While the hostages try to recover emotionally, friends of Lofton are trying to come to grips with what happened to him.

"This Saturday we have a party, and he and I were suppose to run it," Caselman said as tears welled up, "I think coming in the park is when it is really going to hit me that he isn't coming back."

Caselman was Lofton's boss at Casel-Land Fun Center, but he knew him most of his life and considered him more like a son.

"I have had lots of employees but I only had one Shondel, ever," he said.

Shondel helped him build the go-kart track 14 years ago and has worked at the center ever since.

"You have to understand, I have never made a schedule without Shondel's name on it, and I said I never will," Caselman said.  "He'll always have his name on my schedule, and he'll always have a timecard in my timecard rack because I've never done it without him."

Caselman said Lofton will be deeply missed by many people in the community.

Police said Reagan also head-butted officers after they had him in custody. Detectives suspect he was on some kind of drug during the crime spree, but blood tests will determine if that's true.