CLOVIS, N.M. -- The homicide rate in Clovis has dropped for the second year in a row. Keeping with the trend the city saw an overall reduction in violent crimes in 2010.

The Clovis News Journal reports, there were two homicides this year. The February 3, shooting of Sandra Bousquet, 36, and the March 13, stabbing of Andrew Gama, 21, that's down from three in 2009.

Gama died at Plains Regional Medical Center from wounds he suffered during an early morning fight at the Clovis Apartments.

Luciano P. Guerra has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the case. The trial is pending.

Bosquet died March 3, a month after she was shot in the neck. Police said her neighbor, James Fitzpatrick, 61, shot at her during a dispute in her home. Fitzpatrick is charged with first-degree murder.

Three Clovis area murder case were also closed.

In August, Robin Banister, 43, received the maximum sentence of 15 years in prison for the June 2009 stabbing death of Clifford Webber.

She stabbed Webber in the chest, then hid his body in a nearby house until a witness led police to the decomposing body several days later.

January 14, 2011, Anthony Ray Casillas will be sentenced. He was convicted in August of the first-degree murders of Melissa Ward and Gary Payne.

Police said he shot and killed Payne, 52, of Melrose and Ward, 36, of Lubbock in September of 2008 while riding in a van on King Boulevard.

The trial was held in Portales, and it was the second for Casillas after a mistrial was declared earlier in the year in Clovis because of outbursts by Casillas' family members in presence of jurors. He faces a maximum of two life sentences.

In May, Brandon Barela, 25, of Roswell received a life sentence in the 2009 robbery and murder of Tucumcari truck driver Ron Hittson.

Hittson's body was found April 2 near Sugarbeet Road and State Road 523 in Curry County. Police said his attacked beat him with a concrete block so severely that he was unrecognizable.

Police said that Barela and a group of coworkers befriended Hittson at a Clovis bar. The group then went driving in the county with Hittson. The driver stopped and let Hittson out of the vehicle at his request, but Barela got out and attacked him on the side of the road, beating him to death.

Barela was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping, armed robbery and two counts of tampering with evidence. He could be eligible for parole after he serves about 40 years of a 48-year sentence.

Clovis police said that the overall crime rate for the year is expected to be released in the spring.