Crime & Courts

Soldier gets 62 years for killing wife

David Matthew Lopez, 26, was sentenced Tuesday in Anchorage Superior Court to 62 years in prison for shooting his wife to death after the Office of Children's Services took temporary custody of their child.

Superior Court Judge Philip Volland imposed another year for threats Lopez made to state child-protection employees. The state workers said during the hearing that Lopez made them fear for their lives.

Lopez was found guilty in June of killing Sara Lopez in December 2012. Jurors convicted Lopez of first- and second-degree murder, terroristic threatening and resisting arrest.

Lopez was drunk the night he shot Sara, and he had stopped taking depression medication. There were also 15 loaded weapons in the Lopezes' home, according to testimony.

Deputy district attorney Clint Campion argued during trial that Lopez called OCS and threatened to kill everyone in the office. Sara Lopez had taken her child to a local hospital and reported bruises on the 2-year-old girl. The social services agency subsequently took custody of her.

Rubin Reynaga-Pena said in court Friday that he was a catalyst for the deadly shooting. The OCS employee said he feels partially responsible for Sara's death and thinks about her.

"I tried to help her," Reynaga-Pena said. "She didn't deserve to die."

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Roughly half an hour after the threats, Lopez, then an active-duty soldier, called 911 and told police dispatchers, "I think I shot my wife," according to trial testimony. Responders found her barely breathing, and she later died from the single gunshot wound to her head.

The state requested a flat sentence of 75 years. Campion characterized Sara Lopez's death as an execution. The prosecutor added that Lopez displayed little to no emotion throughout the court proceedings. Lopez was "stoic at best," he said.

Defense attorney Dunnington Babb called an expert to the stand Friday, as he did during trial, who testified that Lopez suffered post-traumatic stress from a deployment to Afghanistan. Lopez did not see combat during that tour, according to testimony.

Dr. Francis Abueg testified that he diagnosed Lopez with PTSD following a five to six hour clinical interview in July 2013. He said the disorder caused Lopez irritability and detachment.

Volland called Dr. Abueg's diagnosis a "blurred PTSD." The judge contended that Lopez's mental issues likely stemmed from childhood traumas, such as the death of his father at age 6.

In a brief statement to the court, Lopez apologized for the pain he caused and the people he placed in fear. He said he is not someone who shows emotion, but that does not mean he does not feel emotions.

"I can be better than I was, and better than I've shown."

U.S. Army Alaska spokesman John Pennell said the military is processing the paperwork to discharge Lopez. The Army was waiting for the court process to end, he said.

Jerzy Shedlock

Jerzy Shedlock is a former reporter for Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2017.

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