California man charged with murder of 11-year-old son gets prison for sexually exploiting girl

A federal judge on Monday sentenced a father, who faces murder and child abuse charges in the 2020 death of his 11-year-old son, to 15 years in prison for sexually exploiting a girl at his California home in the months before the boy disappeared in Placerville.

U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb sentenced 38-year-old Jordan Thomas Piper to the required minimum sentence of 15 years in prison, which was recommended by both his defense attorney and the federal prosecutor. But they disagreed on how long his parole should be.

Piper has been in custody without bail since Feb. 4, 2021, when he and his wife were arrested in connection with the death of his son, Roman Lopez. Police said Roman’s body was found in a storage bin in the basement of the couple’s Placerville home.

In March, Piper pleaded guilty in federal court to sexual exploitation of a child in connection with acts that occurred from Oct. 3, 2019, through Jan. 9, 2020, in Tuolumne and El Dorado counties.

As the Placerville Police Department investigated the death of his son, law enforcement seized a digital camera and other digital devices. Investigators searched cellphones and found evidence that Piper secretly recorded videos of the underage girl.

Piper, wearing an orange jail inmate jumpsuit, appeared Monday morning in federal court in Sacramento. He spoke only briefly to tell the judge he did not wish to speak in court before he was sentenced.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger Yang asked for Piper to serve 15 years on parole once he’s released from prison. On Monday, Yang told the judge that Piper has said he was in “a spiraling family situation” that led to him secretly recording video of the girl, and he’s facing charges in the pending El Dorado County murder case.

Tasha Paris Chalfant, Piper’s attorney, asked the court for five years of parole for her client. In a sentencing recommendation filed in court, Chalfant said Piper has no history of prior sex offenses and has taken full responsibility for secretly recording the girl on video.

“Mr. Piper made terrible decisions related to this case. He placed a recording device in a bathroom at his home, and he has great remorse for violating the privacy of all those who used the room,” Chalfant wrote in the court document. “He also acknowledges he behaved in an inappropriate manner with the minor victim via text messages.”

Shubb ordered Piper to serve 15 years in prison for child sexual exploitation and 7 ½ years on parole.

Sexually explicit text messages

Investigators searched cellphones and found evidence that Piper secretly recorded videos of the underage girl, according to a filed affidavit from the FBI.

The FBI obtained a search warrant for Piper’s digital devices and found a video on a GoPro camera. The video appeared to have been recorded on Oct. 19, 2019, and it showed Piper removing the camera from behind a wall outlet in the bathroom of a rented home in Groveland.

The FBI said investigators found many videos that depicted the girl using the bathroom and bathing. The girl was living in Piper’s Groveland home at the time.

Piper sent the girl sexually explicit text messages from Dec. 16 to Dec. 24 of 2019, “concerning a sexual ‘Christmas gift,’” and offering her $250 to use it, according to a filed FBI affidavit.

On Piper’s Samsung cellphone, investigators found screenshots from the secretly recorded videos of the girl — more than 430 explicit images of the girl, the FBI said. Other videos found, dated Oct. 4 and Oct. 5, 2019, were of the girl using the bathroom and bathing other children.

The defense attorney told the court that her client “worked extremely long hours” in his career as a lineman, which required frequent absences from his family. Piper was raising his son by himself, Chalfant said, then his family expanded after marrying his wife, Lindsay Marie Piper.

Piper was the sole source of income for his family, which included his wife, son, four stepchildren and three foster children, according to Chalfant. His wife was a stay-at-home mom. The defense attorney said her client “felt tremendous financial and personal stress, was working extensive hours, was using nonprescribed pills and drinking alcohol and using other substances as soon as he got home from work each night.”

“He completely lost himself as well as his moral compass, and he has tremendous remorse and shame for his conduct in this case,” Chalfant wrote in the sentencing recommendation. “Mr. Piper is reflective and dedicated to living an honorable life again.”

In addition to prison and parole sentences, Shubb also ordered Piper to register with authorities as a convicted sex offender and provide a DNA sample when ordered by a probation officer.

El Dorado County murder case

Piper still faces an uncertain fate in El Dorado County, where local prosecutors accuse of him of murder in his son’s death.

Roman was reported missing from his home Jan. 11, 2020. Officials later revealed that “investigators located Roman deceased inside a storage bin in the basement” of Piper’s rented Placerville home hours after the boy was reported missing.

About 13 months after Roman was found dead, Piper and Roman’s stepmother were arrested. The Pipers were charged with second-degree murder and child abuse likely to cause great bodily injury or death and causing cruel and extreme pain for revenge, extortion or sadistic purpose, according to a criminal complaint filed in El Dorado Superior Court.

Jordan Piper was charged with an additional count of willfully failing to provide food, clothing, shelter and medical attention to the boy. His wife was charged with a separate count of willfully having “mingled a poison and harmful substance with food, drink, medicine, and pharmaceutical product and placed a poison and harmful substance in a spring, well, reservoir and public water supply” knowing it could cause injury. The Pipers pleaded not guilty to those charges.

Last year, Lindsay Piper changed her plea to no contest to the murder charge, the El Dorado County District Attorney’s Office said. She was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. As of Monday, the 41-year-old mother was serving her state prison sentence at the Central California Women’s Facility in Madera County.

On Monday, the federal judge asked the prosecutor to tell him more about Piper’s pending murder case. Yang said he has limited information about the El Dorado County case, but he said, “essentially, his son was exposed to excessive levels of salt and eventually died.”