Idaho man pleads guilty to 1998 beating death in Lubbock
Amanda Lucio sat before Gabriel Lopez on Tuesday and told him that his actions more than 20 years ago plunged her family into a never ending nightmare.
She told him the years he'll spend in prison won't compare to the despair and hopelessness her family felt when he left her husband to die on a driveway 24 years ago.
Lopez, 44, was sentenced to seven years in prison in exchange for a guilty plea to a count of manslaughter, which carries a punishment of two to 20 years in prison. He has been held at the Lubbock County Detention Center since June 21, 2019.
Lopez was one of two men arrested in 2019 in connection with the Jan. 1, 1998 death of 26-year-old Jessie Ordonez at a home in the 2400 block of Third Street. Lopez admitted to recklessly causing Ordonez's death by striking and kicking him.
Lopez's brother, Lee, 42, is also charged with manslaughter in the case and is in being held at the Lubbock County Detention while awaiting trial.
The charges against the brother's stem from a Lubbock police investigation that began when police officers responding to a Jan. 1, 1998 call about an injured man found Ordonez lying in the home's front yard. Officials said Ordonez was in distress and was taken by ambulance to University Medical Center where he died less than an hour later.
For years, Ordonez's killing was unsolved. Ordonez's case, as well as other unsolved homicides, were taken over by the Metropolitan Special Crimes Unit when it was activated in December 2018. The unit is a partnership with the Lubbock Police Department and the Lubbock County Sheriff's Office designed to pool resources and people into solving major cases including homicides.
In June 2019, arrest warrants for the Lopez brothers, who were living in Canyon County, Idaho, were issued.
"We looked at everybody to try to have a kind of a think-tank approach to whatever it takes to get this solved," said Lubbock police Sgt. Brandon Price, who investigated Ordonez's case.
Price said he couldn't comment on a motive for the killing but said Ordonez was at a New Year’s Eve party at the home that lasted into the next day and he got into a fight. Investigators at the time learned that Ordonez was severely beaten by two men, police officials said.
The Lopez brothers, who moved to Idaho shortly after Ordonez's death, were identified as suspects in Ordonez's slaying. In 2007, Lubbock County prosecutors presented a manslaughter case against the brothers to a grand jury who declined to indict the men.
Investigators re-interviewed witnesses and Price traveled to Idaho where he spoke with an eye-witnesses who provided crucial information about the case, and helped secure the warrant for the Lopez brothers.
"I can just tell you this, that it was an eye-witness to what occurred here in Lubbock," Price said in 2019. "We ended up finding this individual there and (the witness) was able to provide details that occurred during the altercation and the assault that ultimately led to the death of Mr. Ordonez, that was able to corroborate stuff that we also had from the autopsy report."
Lucio told Lopez that she couldn't understand how he lived with himself the past 24 years knowing that he'd killed someone and destroyed a family.
"What you did was wrong," she said. "You took away a very loved man; a man who loved his children and family like no other."
Lucio also read letters from their son and other family members.
Ordonez's son, also named Jessie, told Lopez that his actions decades ago robbed him of his childhood, forcing him to go through life without a father to guide and teach him.
He recalled learning how to play football by himself, throwing the ball as high as he could so that he could catch it on his own.
"Because I had no one to play catch with," he said.
In his letter, he told Lopez he also robbed his sisters of precious moments they could have spent with their father, such as daddy-daughter dances and donuts with dad.
Lopez's attorney, Nick Olguin, said after the hearing that his client, who was set to stand trail on Monday, was sympathetic to Ordonez's family and wanted to bring them closure.
"He wanted to take care of it and put it behind him," he said.
Lucio told Lopez that her husband was loved by so many people and didn't deserve to die the way he did.
"You transformed the lives of his family and children into a nightmare they couldn't wake up from," she said. "We couldn't even have an open casket, we couldn't even see him one last time."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Man pleads guilty to 1998 beating death in Lubbock
