GUILTY NM - Brianna Lopez, 5 mos, beaten to death, Las Cruces, 19 July 2002

[WillenFan21]

Has anyone else seen this before? I saw the link on another website that I go to. Just let me tell you it is graphic...It's a news link video from case of a baby from New Mexico named Briana. SO SICK. They showed the pictures becuase LE wanted people to be aware.

[video=youtube;PztTA5EVGQU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PztTA5EVGQU[/video]

 

[Cat Lover]

That was heartbreaking. I am crying right now. Those people who did that to her deserve more than 18 years in prison, and those who knew about it and didn't do anything need more time than 30 days. My heart goes out to that baby.

I cannot stand it when I hear stories of child abuse. This is definitely one of the worse, probably the worse I've heard. It makes me sick and so mad.

 

[Rdw1981]

Everyday I say I'm going to stop reading stories like this. It's so much easier TP turn your head rather than face humanities most hidious qualities. I know there is evil in the world, but I truly can't for the life fathom people as disgusting as these three. The only thing that keeps me sane after reading stories like this is by kissing my two boys on the cheek and telling them I love them. I keep asking the same questions. Why do people like these monsters exist? What makes one person, let alone three, commit the most horrific acts of humanity? I know I will never know these answers, and that haunts me. I believe in the death penalty because of stories like Brianna. Eighteen years at the most her murders will serve; Brianna wasn't didn't even live 18months. How is this justice? Her killers may not receive just punishment in this life, but they will most certainly in the next.

Brianna, baby I know you never knew love and peace on Earth. However, sweet baby I know your being rocked and sung sweet lullabies by the angels now.

 

[Belinda]

STEVEN LOPEZ’ AND ANDREW WALTERS’ SUCCESSFUL APPEALS REVERSED BY NEW MEXICO SUPREME COURT

Back in November of 2008 when I wrote the original story, I said Steven Lopez and Andrew Walters had just successfully appealed their convictions to the New Mexico Court Of Appeals in the case of the abuse and murder of five-month-old Brianna Lopez. That was not entirely true. Actually the court found that all three defendants (Brianna’s mother, Stephanie Lopez, was also convicted) should not have been tried together because it violated their right to cross examine all the witnesses against them in 2006. It’s all very lawyerly, so please don’t ask me to explain the details.

Well, what I missed, because I had been given some bad information and didn’t know how to search court records at the time, was that in September of 2007, The New Mexico Supreme Court overruled the Court of Appeals an reinstated both Lopez’ and Walters’ convictions on most of the counts against them. Here’s the details of that decision.

For Andrew Walters:
Count 1 – ABUSE OF A CHILD CAUSING GREAT BODILY HARM/DEATH – Conviction Reinstated

Count 2 – CONSPIRACY TO ABUSE A CHILD CAUSING GREAT BODILY HARM/DEATH – Conviction Overturned, New Trial Ordered (Prosecution later dropped the charge)

Count 3 – CRIMINAL SEXUAL PENETRATION OF A CHILD CAUSING GREAT BODILY HARM/DEATH – Conviction Reinstated

Counts 4 and 5 – ABUSE OF A CHILD CAUSING GREAT BODILY HARM/DEATH – Conviction Reinstated

For Steven Lopez:
Count 1 – ABUSE OF A CHILD CAUSING GREAT BODILY HARM/DEATH – Conviction Reinstated

Count 2 – CONSPIRACY TO ABUSE A CHILD CAUSING GREAT BODILY HARM/DEATH – Conviction Overturned, New Trial Ordered (Prosecution later dropped the charge)

Count 3 – CRIMINAL SEXUAL PENETRATION OF A CHILD CAUSING GREAT BODILY HARM/DEATH – Conviction Reinstated

Andrew Walters ended up with a sentence of 63 years in prison plus 2 years of probation. Steven Lopez was sentenced to a total of 57 years in prison and 2 years of probation.

http://pysih.com/2009/05/13/update-stephanie-lopez-andrew-walters-and-steven-lopez/

 

[BrownRice]

I could only watch 2 minutes of the video and had to stop. I always think I can't read anything worse when I read these type of cases, but I truly think this is the worst I've ever read. It just defies any type of logic - why would anybody throw a baby to a ceiling, rape an infant, bite her, etc. And out of the 3 adults present, they all did this? Were there drugs involved?

Why would the remaining family not allow the community to show respect and love for this baby at her grave? I don't get it? Has the cage been removed? Where were these family members during Brianna's 5 months on earth? These injuries didn't happen in one day.

 

[mysterygirl]

They were all on drugs!

As far as I know, the cage remains around her grave.

I cried for days when I read about this case and it still haunts me!!

It's remarkable what some parents do to their children when most parents would die for their kids.

Cases like this never cease to enrage me.........

These people were junkie trash who murdered the most innocent little thing.........this is one of those cases that is spotlighted for child abuse awareness and rightly so.

Although so difficult to know about I feel it's important to not forget the innocent children who suffer!

 

[mysterygirl]

STEVEN LOPEZ’ AND ANDREW WALTERS’ SUCCESSFUL APPEALS REVERSED BY NEW MEXICO SUPREME COURT

Back in November of 2008 when I wrote the original story, I said Steven Lopez and Andrew Walters had just successfully appealed their convictions to the New Mexico Court Of Appeals in the case of the abuse and murder of five-month-old Brianna Lopez. That was not entirely true. Actually the court found that all three defendants (Brianna’s mother, Stephanie Lopez, was also convicted) should not have been tried together because it violated their right to cross examine all the witnesses against them in 2006. It’s all very lawyerly, so please don’t ask me to explain the details.

Well, what I missed, because I had been given some bad information and didn’t know how to search court records at the time, was that in September of 2007, The New Mexico Supreme Court overruled the Court of Appeals an reinstated both Lopez’ and Walters’ convictions on most of the counts against them. Here’s the details of that decision.

For Andrew Walters:
Count 1 – ABUSE OF A CHILD CAUSING GREAT BODILY HARM/DEATH – Conviction Reinstated

Count 2 – CONSPIRACY TO ABUSE A CHILD CAUSING GREAT BODILY HARM/DEATH – Conviction Overturned, New Trial Ordered (Prosecution later dropped the charge)

Count 3 – CRIMINAL SEXUAL PENETRATION OF A CHILD CAUSING GREAT BODILY HARM/DEATH – Conviction Reinstated

Counts 4 and 5 – ABUSE OF A CHILD CAUSING GREAT BODILY HARM/DEATH – Conviction Reinstated

For Steven Lopez:
Count 1 – ABUSE OF A CHILD CAUSING GREAT BODILY HARM/DEATH – Conviction Reinstated

Count 2 – CONSPIRACY TO ABUSE A CHILD CAUSING GREAT BODILY HARM/DEATH – Conviction Overturned, New Trial Ordered (Prosecution later dropped the charge)

Count 3 – CRIMINAL SEXUAL PENETRATION OF A CHILD CAUSING GREAT BODILY HARM/DEATH – Conviction Reinstated

Andrew Walters ended up with a sentence of 63 years in prison plus 2 years of probation. Steven Lopez was sentenced to a total of 57 years in prison and 2 years of probation.

http://pysih.com/2009/05/13/update-stephanie-lopez-andrew-walters-and-steven-lopez/

Thank you so much for the update Belinda. I've never searched court records before so I'm glad some of you are experienced with it.

I think these people should have gotten the death penalty........all three of them but that is just me.

 

[MorenoI]

When I read the story I honestly cried for days. Everytime I thought of Brianna my heart felt like it was breaking. I couldnt believe that someone much less a group of family members could be so grossly evil. I had to write a letter to the so called mom and express the pain that I felt for little Brianna. Of course she never wrote back. I tried not to attack I asked her questions about her feelings and such. I thought a different approach would work but it did not. JMO

 

[passionflower]

I cannot believe as a grandmother that I could ever be quiet.
This whole family is nuts, JMOO

 

[sayd]

Story about petition to keep Baby Briana's mother in jail:

http://www.koat.com/news/30594461/detail.html

 

[believe09]

While the New Mexico State Parole Board said it sympathizes with petitioners, the board has no authority to change it once a judge determines a sentence.

I hardly know what to say.
​

 

[amandab]

This is on change.org - I just signed it. Let's give this petition a fighting chance:

http://www.change.org/petitions/the...parole-for-stephanie-lopez-nmcd-inmate-59941#

 

[sktrsmw]

It might be a good idea to make some pen pals with prisoners at the same prison that these monsters are serving time at. Get the word out to your pen pal WHY these people are serving time, and then let "nature take it's course."

 

[EXIA15145]

This is one of the saddest cases of child abuse I have ever heard. This is a must read.

http://nvfc.us/blog

If anyone else is viewing this thread and can answer this question BUT provide a verified source- I can't find it. WAS Brianna Lopez a foster or adopted child? This story sounds familiar, but the one I remember, the child was put in foster care and that's who her 'parents' are that killed her. Not the mother she was born to.

 

[EXIA15145]

If anyone else is viewing this thread and can answer this question BUT provide a verified source- I can't find it. WAS Brianna Lopez a foster or adopted child? This story sounds familiar, but the one I remember, the child was put in foster care and that's who her 'parents' are that killed her. Not the mother she was born to.

I have been looking online ever since I posted this and I can't find any of the information I had previously found. So, my apologies. Almost everything I have found indicates the baby, Brianna, was the biological child of Stephanie and Walters.

 

[EXIA15145]

Thanks mysterygirl - I had read about Brianna's story, but hadn't been to the memorial website. I just went and signed the petition to have her cage removed. Anyone who hasn't yet signed it, please take the time to do so.

I would like to know how 'Brianna's family' is able to keep the cage over her burial site when it says in the video they did not claim her body, pay for her casket, funeral, etc. but the citizens did. They do not own the burial site (who paid for the burial site? Wasn't it the citizens?) , so how can they legally fence it in?

 

[elliha]

I found this case today. I asked my 10 month old daughter how it is possible that anyone given the gift of a child could do this. She didn't have an answer of course, she just smiled and said her favorite word *sse* (kisse= Swedish word for cat/kitten used by kids). I mean, I wake up every day being thankful for my daughter, how can you just let a baby suffer like this. The thing that really got to me was the no pictures taken. Me and my husband probably took more than 100 pictures her first month alone. That is what most parents do, if you are too poor to buy a camera you ask someone to take a picture, it is your child! I don't think my parents owned a camera when my older siblings were born, still there are plenty of pictures because they got them from other people or paid for them to have extra copies. It just shows how unspecial she was in her parents eyes...

 

[Tonya421]

I know this is an old thread, but wanted to post anyway.

When I first heard about Brianna, I went on to google to learn more about this precious baby. At the time my computer was down so I was using my cheapo phone. I found a memorial site & began reading about the horrid torture this beautiful baby had to endure. With every sentence I read I became more and more disgusted and even physically sick to my stomach.
I remember holding onto the phone with one hand and my other hand I held over my mouth.
Reading about it was horrible, absolutely horrible.
Little did I know that there were "before" pictures of this little angel on that site.
Once my eyes saw the results of the absolute brutality inflicted on her, I literally chunked the phone onto the floor. I guess maybe thats' a normal reaction to seeing this baby bruised from head to toe. And knowing that her own family could not be bothered to take one single picture of this gift from God. Not one single photograph!
I eventually got up to pick the phone up and my hands were shaking so badly I dropped it again.
And like all of you, my thoughts were Why? How? How could anyone be so incredibly un-feeling, heartless and evil to do these things to a baby?
I never could come up with an answer to those questions. And I've decided I don't want to know the mindset of the lowest of the low, the most evil of evil. I don't want my mind to go to that dark side. I think I would be afraid that if I let my brain go there, I might not come back.
Five months. That's all the time these monster spawn let her live. And they made every day of it a nightmare for this sweet baby.
I would have taken her. In a nano-second I would've driven up there and brought her home with me. She would have been shown love, kindness, generosity and protection.
One day these monsters will be free and that infuriates me. They get to live, enjoy a meal, baths, conversations, laughter and love. Brianna gets a cage over her grave. That speaks volumes to the remaining family members.
Brianna didn't deserve this. And they didn't deserve her. My opinion is that every one of them that was involved, even by omission, don't deserve the space and oxygen required to keep them alive.
At times, I've wavered on the death penalty. But I am firmly in favor of it when it comes to people who commit these atrocities on children.
And I know that there are a lot of people who don't agree with me. That it is not up to us to decide who lives and who dies. Some probably even believe that these 3 can be rehabilitated. That if they ask forgiveness from God, they will recieve it. God can forgive them, but I can't and won't.

 

[sayd]

Remember Baby Brianna - she would have been 12.

http://www.koat.com/news/new-mexico...otsuite&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=koat

 

[kcornelius]

I could not bear to look at this....after listening to the closing arguments in the Teghan Skiba murder trial I have bee truly depressed and just like you guys this truly upsets me...these stories haunt me. I have 2 grands and I am here to tell you that jail would not be good enough for me......I think we should handle evil in a totally different manner.