Lead driver in 2022 East High fatal shooting gets 70-year sentence
A teen who police say was one of the instigators in a fatal drive-by shooting outside Des Moines' East High School faces decades in prison but will have no mandatory minimum to serve.
Octavio Lopez Sanchez Jr. was sentenced Thursday by Judge Celene Gogerty to up to 70 years in consecutive sentences for the March 2022 shooting, which left one youth dead and two seriously wounded. But because Octavio Lopez was a juvenile at the time of the shooting, Gogerty declined to impose any minimum sentence, which means he will immediately be able to seek parole.
Police said shots were fired from at least six guns as a three-car convoy carrying 10 teens sped past East High School. Jose Lopez, 15, who police say was the brother of the intended target, was killed and bystanders Kemery Ortega and Jessica Lopez Torres each suffered head wounds.
Octavio Lopez, who police say was the driver of the lead vehicle, was the last of the 10 suspects to plead guilty and is the eighth to be sentenced. The remaining two, who were 14 and 15 at the time of the shooting, are receiving juvenile court services and will be formally sentenced when they turn 18.
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Octavio Lopez spoke briefly during the hearing to apologize to Jose Lopez's family and to Lopez Torres, who was in the courtroom. Deborha Perez, the slain youth's mother, told Octavio Lopez from the stand that she hoped he would face the maximum punishment.
"You are the coward who took my son’s life away, and there’s no doubt you should be put away for the rest of your life," she said.
What role did Lopez play in the shooting?
Des Moines Police Detective Ryan Garrett testified that there was an ongoing feud between two groups of young people, and in particular between Octavio Lopez and Jose Lopez's older brother. On the day of the shooting, he said, the group set out from Octavio Lopez's home to witness a fight between other youths, but encountered Jose Lopez's brother outside East High and decided instead to gun him down.
Investigators believe at least 41 shots were fired from the cars toward a group of people in the school parking lot. Although Octavio Lopez did not wield a gun himself, two others in his car testified he'd handed one of the shooters a gun and told him to open fire.
His sentencing was delayed when, in September, he tried to withdraw his guilty plea and go to trial. He claimed his then-attorneys had misled him about the possible penalties he could face, which they denied. The court rejected his request.
Courts are required by law to consider juveniles' history and amenability to treatment before sentencing them to a mandatory minimum term. In Thursday's hearing, both sides offered testimony from psychologists who had examined Octavio Lopez and disagreed about his propensity for future violence and likelihood of responding to future treatment options.
The state asked Gogerty, the judge, to require him to serve at least 45 years, and she said she found more credible the state's witness, who testified to deep concerns about Octavio Lopez's antisocial tendencies and lack of motivation to reform. Nonetheless, she said, higher courts have held that minimum sentences for juveniles should be the exception rather than the rule, and she declined to impose a minimum.
Even so, she said, there was no minimizing the severity of his actions.
"You didn’t just affect three people, you affect all their families. You affected the community," she told him. "It was a terrible thing you did."
Octavio Lopez's 70 years is the second-longest sentence among the East High defendants to date, following that of Romeo Perdomo, who received a life sentence. Lopez was the first for whom prosecutors had sought a minimum prison term.
William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com, 715-573-8166 or on Twitter at @DMRMorris.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Des Moines teen in school drive-by shooting gets 70-year sentence
