Crime & Courts

Jury trial begins in case of Anchorage soldier accused of murdering wife

Opening statements Monday in the trial of David Lopez, an Anchorage-based soldier accused of murdering his wife more than a year ago, painted two scenarios of how Sara Lopez died on the evening of Dec. 12, 2012.

Deputy district attorney Clinton Campion argued Monday in a courtroom at Anchorage's Nesbett Courthouse that David Lopez shot and killed his wife after she took their daughter to the hospital and the 2-year-old was subsequently held by the Office of Children's Services.

Defense attorney Dunnington Babb argued that Lopez's wife, suffering from a history of depression and opioid abuse, took her own life that night. Lopez's initial call to 911 dispatchers -- in which he stated that he had killed her -- was a symptom of his post-traumatic stress disorder, Babb argued.

David Lopez, 26, faced four charges as the jury trial commenced Monday, including murder in the first degree and terroristic threatening due to a phone call to OCS in which he said he would kill everyone in the office, according to prosecutors. On Monday, Lopez appeared in court in a green button-down shirt, tie and glasses, surrounded by his legal counsel.

The incident occurred Dec. 12, 2012, roughly two months after Lopez returned from military service in Afghanistan. Lopez was on leave at the time, Campion said.

David and Sara Lopez had moved to Alaska in 2010, when Lopez was assigned to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. He was deployed to Afghanistan for 10 months and came home in October 2012 to his family, who were "excited" for his return, Campion said.

On Dec. 12, Sara Lopez noticed rashes and bruising on their 2-year-old daughter's face and ear, prompting her to take the girl to the JBER hospital.

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Sara Lopez first spoke about the injuries with a nurse, who then informed the Anchorage Police Department of a possible situation involving child abuse. That afternoon, the Office of Children's Services was notified and temporarily took custody of their daughter, Campion said.

David Lopez had been drinking all day, Campion said, and had loaded weapons lying around the house when his wife returned to their East Anchorage apartment and told him what had happened.

"He was angry, he was drunk, he was violent, he was threatening," Campion said.

That evening, Lopez called OCS and made the threat to kill everyone in the office, Campion said. The agency notified police just after 7 p.m.

Roughly half an hour later, Lopez called 911, saying "I think I shot my wife," according to a recording played in court. She was found barely breathing by police officers, and emergency responders later pronounced her dead at the scene from a single gunshot to the head, Campion said.

When Lopez was being taken to the police station for questioning that evening, he was "begging" a police officer to shoot him in the face while repeating that he had killed his wife, and at one point tried to grab an officer's gun, Campion said.

Campion argued that Lopez initially confessed to the killing and later changed his story to say that she had committed suicide.

Defense attorney Babb argued that Sara Lopez struggled with depression and opioid addiction, two factors that "were stopping her from being the mother she so desperately wanted to be." She had been hospitalized several months before for a major depressive episode and had not followed through with treatment, Babb said.

Her daughter was malnourished, underweight and hadn't been properly cared for when she took the child to the hospital that day. After having her daughter taken from her, the "despair was overwhelming," Babb said, and "more than she could cope with."

David Lopez suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, Babb argued, partially characterized by a sense of responsibility and an "overwhelming grief and remorse" of being unable to protect others who lost their lives in the course of his service in Afghanistan.

Babb played the initial 911 recording for the jury, in which Lopez tells the dispatcher "I think I shot my wife," because "she had taken my daughter away." He also tells the dispatcher that the shooting was an accident.

Babb then played a later interview with police in which Lopez said, "I did not shoot her." He told police "I feel it's my fault" and "I feel that I pulled the trigger."

The medical examiner could not conclude that the shooting was a homicide, Babb stated, and there were no signs of struggle or defensive injury in the house or on Sara Lopez's body.

Babb said that David Lopez's phone call to OCS was a desperate attempt to get his daughter back, one that was "an abject failure."

Lopez, originally from Rochester, N.Y., joined the Army in 2009. He was still enlisted in the Army on Monday but was "pending separation," said John Pennell, spokesperson for U.S. Army Alaska.

"Paperwork is being prepared pending the outcome of his trial," Pennell said.

Laurel Andrews

Laurel Andrews was a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch News and Alaska Dispatch. She left the ADN in October 2018.

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