Bulldog gang member was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole for his role in the killing of 16-year-old Courtney Rice in June 2006.Wearing leg and wrist shackles, Joseph Enrique Lopez, 26, told Rice's family in the Fresno County courtroom that he was sorry for Rice's death."I am not the enemy," he said. "I didn't have anything to do with this." But the victim's mother, Stephanie Rice, and the girl's grandmother, Joan Robledo, told Judge Gary Orozco that Lopez should spend the rest of his life in prison."We want justice for Courtney," Robledo said. "She was only 16 years old. There was no regard for her life."The judge agreed, saying Lopez played a key role in her death.Rice, the mother of a 1-year-old, was lured to an apartment complex in northwest Fresno and suffocated by Bulldog gang members, prosecutor Chris Gularte said. Her half-naked and bruised body was found wrapped in a sleeping bag in the back of an abandoned pickup a few days later.In February, a jury convicted Lopez of first-degree murder, attempted rape and false imprisonment. The panel also found that Lopez directed the killing to enhance the image of a gang.
Lopez received 11 years and eight months for his convictions of attempted rape and false imprisonment, as well as for the gang enhancement and his prior criminal activity. He received life in prison without parole for the murder conviction.
Though Lopez was not in the apartment when Rice died, the prosecutor said Lopez directed other gang members to kill her because he feared she might snitch to police about his criminal background. His prior crimes include drunken driving causing injury, selling drugs, auto theft and evading police, the judge said.
The girl "is gonna have to die," Lopez reportedly said while holding a shotgun.
Gularte said Lopez also left fingerprints on the black tape that was used to bind the girl and stole his brother's work truck to haul the body away.
Rice died of asphyxiation, Gularte said during the trial. Pathologist Venu Gopal backed up the prosecutor's allegations, but he was challenged by defense pathologists who said Rice may have died from a heart attack because she was on drugs.Originally, seven people were charged in connection to Rice's killing. They have either accepted plea deals with the District Attorney's Office or have been convicted by a jury.On Friday, Lopez's lawyer, Phillip Cherney, said his client was remorseful. "This may sound ironic, but I know he cared about Courtney Rice," Cherney said.The defense lawyer said Lopez's sentence was unfair because the other defendants, including the ones who actually killed Rice, have received lesser prison sentences

 Edit Post