California man sentenced to death in 2010 murder of teen snatched while walking home from school

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A California man convicted last year of the kidnapping and murder of a 17-year-old girl was sentenced Friday to die for the crime.

Jesse Perez Torres, 44, was sentenced to death for the July 15, 2010, first-degree murder, with special circumstances, of Norma Angelica Lopez. The teen vanished that day as she walked to a friend’s home after summer classes at Valley View High School in Moreno Valley.

Her lifeless body was found five days later in a dirt field 3 miles from where she was last seen alive, according to the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. At the time of the murder, Torres, who was charged with the crime in October 2011, lived in the Moreno Valley neighborhood from which Lopez was snatched.

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The Press-Enterprise in Riverside reported that prosecutors theorized at trial that Torres had previously seen Lopez and her boyfriend as they walked home from school together. He then waited until a day when she was alone to kidnap and kill the teen.

The day she died was the first time Lopez had made the walk without her boyfriend, the newspaper reported.

Torres moved back to his hometown of Long Beach weeks after the murder.

“The killing of Norma Lopez and the dumping of her body like a piece of garbage can only be described as disgusting,” Riverside County Superior Court Judge Bernard J. Schwartz said during Torres’ sentencing, according to the paper. “The defendant displays an utter disregard for human life and is a threat to society. No question about that.”

Moreno Valley detectives said in 2010 that Lopez had planned to meet her boyfriend, her sister and some friends at a friend’s home a few blocks from her high school. Her summer school classes ended at 10 a.m.

When she had not shown up by noon, the group got worried and headed across an open field toward the high school to look for her.

They found no sign of Lopez but found her purse, a school binder and a broken earring in the field, the Press-Enterprise reported. Her family called police and reported her missing.

Her decomposing body was found in a grove of trees near the edge of Moreno Valley hours after the city council offered a $35,000 reward for her safe return. Authorities could not determine how she died.

Torres was linked to the crime in September 2011 when his DNA profile, which was placed on file following a domestic violence arrest earlier that year, was matched to DNA found on Lopez’ earring, the newspaper reported. Authorities had also been looking for a green SUV seen on home security footage making a U-turn and speeding through the neighborhood where Lopez was last seen walking.

The vehicle appeared on the video less than 30 seconds after Lopez could be seen walking by.

Torres owned a green Nissan Xterra when he lived in Moreno Valley, the Press-Enterprise reported. He sold the vehicle weeks after the murder, when he relocated to Long Beach.

After multiple delays due to defense challenges to the evidence, as well as changes to Torres’ defense team and the prosecutors trying the case, the trial began in February 2019. Torres was found guilty the following month.

The special circumstances included in the first-degree murder charge were that it was committed during the commission of a felony, namely Lopez’ kidnapping, prosecutors said.

A week after the verdict, jurors deliberated for about an hour before recommending death for the convicted killer.

Lopez’ sister, Sonia Lopez, spoke tearfully in court Friday, reading from a letter that their mother, also named Norma Lopez, wrote to the judge.

“I took Norma to school that day not knowing it was the last time I will ever see her again. That’s the day this nightmare started,” the letter stated, according to prosecutors. “Without Norma, my house was filled with pain and sadness.”

The elder Norma Lopez wrote that her daughter’s death stole the joy from the family’s home.

“Everywhere in the house there was laughter and happiness. It was beautiful. But that all ended the day that Norma did not return home to us,” she wrote.

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Sonia Lopez also offered her own words to the judge.

“They say that time heals everything, but it doesn’t,” she said. “We just had to learn how to go on with our lives and live with the pain, even though it isn’t easy to do.”

Cox Media Group