VISTA (CNS) - A woman who participated in the torture-killing of a 22- year-old military wife at a Fallbrook home where bondage, sadism and masochism were practiced was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Jessica Lynn Lopez, 28, was convicted of murder, kidnapping, torture and attempted sexual battery in the April 13, 2012, death of Brittany Killgore.
Co-defendants Louis Ray Perez and Dorothy Maraglino were also convicted of murder and were previously sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Killgore had just filed for divorce from her Marine husband, who was deployed to Afghanistan, when she was killed. Prosecutors said Killgore was lured to a meeting with Perez, and her body was found four days later in Riverside County.
According to Deputy District Attorney Patrick Espinoza, a stun baton found in the back of Perez's SUV had the victim's DNA on it. A plastic sheet in the back of Perez's car also had the victim's blood on it.
Lopez's attorney, Sloan Ostbye, told jurors that her client was a victim to a "slave" contract she entered into with Maraglino in the bondage and sadomasochistic world. Ostbye presented Lopez as a patsy, an abused servant forced to take the blame for a crime she did not commit.
Perez's attorney, Brad Patton, told the jury that Lopez committed the murder.
