N.M. man sentenced for fatally strangling and then raping his fiancée after finding iPad selfies
03/02/2023 1:35 pm PST
BERNALILLO COUNTY, N.M. (TCD) -- A 40-year-old man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for fatally strangling his 27-year-old fiancée and raping her after her death.
On Wednesday, March 1, Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman announced that Jeremiah Lopez was sentenced to life in prison plus an additional 15 years for first-degree murder, false imprisonment, and three counts of criminal sexual penetration.
Lopez was convicted of the charges in June 2022 after a jury deliberated for two hours, the Albuquerque Journal reports.
On Jan. 15, 2019, the Albuquerque Journal said Lopez fatally strangled Krishauna Perez in their home because he discovered explicit selfies on her iPad and believed she sent them to another man. However, prosecutors argued that Perez never sent the explicit photographs to anyone.
Lopez raped the victim after she was dead and then stabbed himself before calling 911 and confessing to the strangling, KRQE-TV reports.
During the trial, Lopez said to the jurors, "I’m ashamed to say it, but I had sex with her naturally, and after that went and got the knife, and I slit my wrists," KOB-TV reports.
Lopez continued, "When I didn’t feel like I was gonna die, I had sex with her again. And then I stabbed myself in the throat."
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