Hollister
– Hollister resident Andrew Lopez was sentenced Wednesday to 18
years in state prison for the April 2006 carjacking and stabbing of
a rival gang member.
Hollister – Hollister resident Andrew Lopez was sentenced Wednesday to 18 years in state prison for the April 2006 carjacking and stabbing of a rival gang member.
Lopez, 20, appeared at his sentencing wearing black and white jail garb with a small cross around his neck. His expression remained stoic as San Benito County Superior Court Judge Steven Sanders read the total number of years.
Sanders allowed Lopez to address the court before he delivered the sentence Wednesday. Lopez said he had no memory of the carjacking and stabbing of Carlos Gonzalez.
“I just wanted to say that on that day I was on drugs,” Lopez said. “I felt bad for what I’ve done but I don’t remember.”
Sanders then allowed Lopez’s mother, Victoria Lopez, to address the court. Victoria Lopez said her son had been ill for more than three years, has had several heart attacks and a stroke.
Victoria Lopez expressed shock at the claims against her son.
“How all this happened I don’t understand,” Victoria Lopez said. “But my son is not capable of that.”
She added that the sentence would not only affect her son, but her family as well.
A probation department report stated that Lopez claims to have been in a four-day coma in 2004 after breathing food into his lungs.
The report also stated that Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz found Lopez to be bipolar. Lopez also received treatment for mental problems but did not consistently keep appointments with doctors or take prescribed medications, according to the San Benito County Behavioral Health Center.
Greg LaForge, Lopez’s attorney, argued that his client was not of sound mind when committing the crime.
“My client was without his medication for about four days prior to his offense,” LaForge said.
He said his client pleaded no contest to reduced charges to avoid facing a sentence of life in prison.
“It’s unfortunate that he got so much time at such a young age,” LaForge said.
Lopez had originally been charged with three felony counts: attempted second-degree murder, assault causing great bodily harm and resisting arrest, along with street terrorism, according to court documents.
But District Attorney-Elect Candice Hooper dropped the attempted murder and resisting an executive officer charge as part of a plea bargain, reducing the charges to carjacking and assault with a deadly weapon done in conjunction with a street gang.
Hooper said that although she had hoped for a longer prison term, she was satisfied with the 18-year sentence, the term suggested by the probation department.
Gonzalez is believed by police to be a member of the Sureño street gang. Lopez is believed to be a member of the rival Norteño gang.
Gonzalez said Lopez asked him for a ride on the night of April 6. While Gonzalez was driving on Union Heights Road, he said, Lopez ordered him to stop the car and get out. When he refused, Gonzalez said, Lopez stabbed him in the stomach. Gonzalez told deputies he stopped the car and tried to run away, but was stabbed a second time in the back.
Lopez then drove Gonzalez’s green Toyota Camry into San Juan Bautista, where he hit a parked car, according to deputies. Lopez fled the car on foot after the crash and hid in the yard behind a nearby home. After San Juan Bautista residents reported spotting Lopez, deputies took him into custody by subduing him with Taser stun guns.
Deputies found Norteño headbands, gang pictures and a roster of 10 Norteño gang members after searching Lopez’s Hollister home, according to Sheriff’s Lt. Roy Iler. Sheriff Curtis Hill previously told the Free Lance that Lopez was considered a “hard-core” Norteño gang member.
Lopez has been in and out of Juvenile Hall, group homes and a boys’ ranch since 2000 and was identified as a Norteño gang member at the age of 14, according to a probation department report.
But Victoria Lopez told the Free Lance on Wednesday that her son was not a gang member.
“My son is a Norteño? A hard-core Norteño? This is ridiculous,” she said.
Michael Van Cassell covers public safety for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 335, or [email protected].
