Its too bad her children couln't escape the death sentence she handed out to them.
Truly sad.
God bless their souls and may they rest in peace.
Outside the weathered Southwest Side triplex where Valerie Lopez killed her two small children, wrapped them in trash bags and hid them beneath the wood-frame house more than a year ago, physical reminders of the gruesome scene remain.
A cracked concrete plaque buried in the front yard and dedicated to 14-month-old Sariyah Garcia and 4-month-old Sebastian Lopez reads: “Our angels have gone home with our Lord Jesus.”
But in the back of the two-story residence, a more menacing message is scrawled on a wall. This one is aimed at the mother and her boyfriend: “Burn in hell Valerie and Jerry.”
On Thursday, the first day of her scheduled trial in Nueces County, Lopez avoided a death sentence in a last-minute plea agreement in which she pleaded guilty to two counts of capital murder in exchange for life in prison without parole.
Under terms of the plea deal, Lopez has agreed to testify against her boyfriend, 29-year-old Jerry Salazar, who also was indicted earlier this year in the children's deaths. Salazar's trial is pending.
Lopez's defense attorney Michael Gross said his 21-year-old client struggled with taking the deal up to the last minute, that it was a “very weighty decision for her to make,” but that ultimately she agreed to it, “in order to save her life.”
He said she remained very remorseful about her children's deaths, and “definitely is not taking this lightly. ... Whenever the subject comes up, she's very tearful about it. Whenever their birthdays come up, she's very tearful.”
Neighbors in the 1300 block of West Winnipeg — where the children's bodies were discovered in March 2007 — are less sympathetic to the mother.
“When I first heard they might give her the death penalty, I thought it was the easy way out,” neighbor Yvonne Cortez said.
“When I first heard they might give her the death penalty, I thought it was the easy way out,” neighbor Yvonne Cortez said.
Nearby resident Yvangelina Gonzales said the neighborhood was in shock when the bodies were found.
“We couldn't sleep. Everybody was shaken by all this,” Gonzales said. “It's still not something you can forget.”
“We couldn't sleep. Everybody was shaken by all this,” Gonzales said. “It's still not something you can forget.”
The change-of-venue case made headlines and stunned community members, who viewed the young victims as symbols in the fight against child abuse in Bexar County.
In 2007, more than a dozen children died locally from child abuse or neglect.
On the day of the couple's arrests last spring, District Attorney Susan Reed said in televised news reports that she intended to seek the death penalty against both of them.
But on Thursday, standing in the Nueces County courtroom, Reed explained she agreed to the lesser punishment after “considering all the circumstances, considering all the evidence, considering the defendant's age, and considering the jurisdiction we've been transferred to.”
Reed noted Lopez still would serve a stringent sentence, saying, “This woman is going to be locked up for the rest of her life. She will never, ever see freedom again.”
Reed noted Lopez still would serve a stringent sentence, saying, “This woman is going to be locked up for the rest of her life. She will never, ever see freedom again.”
As part of her cooperation with the state, Lopez offered prosecutors witnesses who said Salazar gave them conflicting statements about his role in the crime.
Sometimes he said he was the only one involved in the slayings and other times that it was he and Lopez, Gross said.
Sometimes he said he was the only one involved in the slayings and other times that it was he and Lopez, Gross said.
Salazar's attorney Joel Perez maintained Lopez's plea deal wouldn't affect his case.
“He told the police he had nothing to do with this,” Perez said. “I still see us going to trial.”
But Sylvia Garcia, Sariyah's great-grandmother, said she thinks Lopez is not guilty and took the fall to protect her boyfriend.
“He told the police he had nothing to do with this,” Perez said. “I still see us going to trial.”
But Sylvia Garcia, Sariyah's great-grandmother, said she thinks Lopez is not guilty and took the fall to protect her boyfriend.
“To me, she is defending Jerry,” Garcia said. “I know Valerie, little Miss Toughie Valerie, and she would take the blame.”
Though initially charged with the lesser crime of injury to a child, Salazar in March also was indicted on charges of capital murder. The indictment accuses him of causing their deaths by failing to protect them and in not removing them from Lopez though he knew that she was a threat to their health and safety.
District Judge Mary Roman decided last year to move Lopez's trial to Nueces County after her attorneys argued that the wide-ranging media coverage would make it impossible for her to get a fair trial here.
Lopez was indicted in June, accused of suffocating Sebastian with a blanket and killing him by “a manner and means unknown to the grand jury,” a charge used in cases in which it's unclear how a victim died.
Lopez earlier had been charged with killing Sariyah, and the indictment accused her of striking the toddler with her hand, with an unknown object and against an unknown object.
After her arrest in March 2007, Lopez admitted to beating her daughter to death on Christmas Eve after she wouldn't stop crying, then hiding her body beneath the apartment.
After her arrest in March 2007, Lopez admitted to beating her daughter to death on Christmas Eve after she wouldn't stop crying, then hiding her body beneath the apartment.
But the mother maintained Sebastian's death was an accident, that she rolled onto him in her sleep one night in February. As she had done before, Lopez said she wrapped the boy in a trash bag and placed him beside his sister.
