{"id":1594,"date":"2022-07-08T22:35:38","date_gmt":"2022-07-09T05:35:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/?p=1594"},"modified":"2022-07-09T00:24:40","modified_gmt":"2022-07-09T07:24:40","slug":"justice-for-roman-lopez-stepmother-sentenced-to-15-years-to-life-in-his-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/07\/08\/justice-for-roman-lopez-stepmother-sentenced-to-15-years-to-life-in-his-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice For Roman Lopez: Stepmother Sentenced To 15 Years To Life In His Death"},"content":{"rendered":"
Madisen Keavy, CBS<\/pre>\n
(PLACERVILLE, CALIFORNIA) July 8, 2022 \u2014 \u201cWhat kind of human tortures a child?\u201d That was an emotional question asked aloud in an El Dorado courtroom Friday directed at 11-year-old Roman Lopez\u2019s stepmother, Lindsay Piper, who will spend 15 years to life in state prison for his death.<\/p>\n
The sentencing hearing came more than two years after Lopez\u2019s body was found in the basement of his father, Jordan Piper, and stepmother\u2019s Placerville home. Lindsay Piper listened Friday as Lopez\u2019s paternal and maternal grandmothers, aunt, family, and Piper\u2019s own sons shared what was described as her history of \u201cdestroying lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
ordan and Lindsay Piper originally\u00a0pleaded not guilty<\/a>\u00a0last November. Then, in May, Lindsay changed her not guilty plea to a no-contest plea, which meant she was sentenced on one charge of second-degree murder, eligible for parole after 15 years. She also faced counts of child abuse, poisoning and torture, but as part of her plea, those charges were dismissed.<\/p>\n
Before the sentence was handed down Friday, Judge Vicki Ashworth told Piper she \u201cdidn\u2019t deserve to be [Roman\u2019s] stepmother, quite frankly\u201d and \u201cthe court can think of no more evil person than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s truly appalling and horrific to know what this little boy went through at the hands of Piper,\u201d Judge Ashworth said.<\/p>\n
\u2018Evil Has To Be Held Accountable\u2019: Lopez\u2019s Family Called Out Lindsay Piper\u2019s Lies<\/h3>\n
In a prepared victim impact statement, Lopez\u2019s paternal grandmother Jackie Farah shared memories of the 11-year-old, who was her first-born grandchild. She said she spent his first seven birthdays with him, until he moved in with his father and stepmother, she said. It was at this point, she detailed, that Lindsay Piper \u201cpoisoned his mind and his body against me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Farah said Piper \u201cfooled us all\u201d and manipulated family to believe that she \u201cwould protect him like a mother would.\u201d Now, in retrospect, Farah said she has her own guilt that she unknowingly \u201chanded him over to the devil,\u201d not a caring stepmother.<\/p>\n
As she spoke, Piper did not make eye contact or look in Farah\u2019s direction.<\/p>\n
Farah addressed Lopez\u2019s maternal grandparents who were present at the sentencing via Zoom, his maternal grandmother, Denise Shipley, also read her own victim impact statement. Farah said her grandson meant everything to her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am so sorry\u2026for their entire family,\u201d Farah said. \u201cEvil has to be held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Farah\u2019s statement was followed by Lopez\u2019s aunt, Casandra Lennox, his biological mother\u2019s sister, who spoke on her behalf. Lopez\u2019s mother, Rochelle Lopez, died in April 2021 in Wisconsin and is buried next to her son. She spoke to CBS13 fewer than 24 hours after she learned Roman was found dead.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn\u2019t deserve this. I wish I could\u2019ve been there. Maybe I could\u2019ve stopped it,\u201d Rochelle told CBS13 in January 2020.<\/p>\n
Her sister, Lennox, spoke via Zoom. She described her nephew as a \u201csilly, kind, compassionate, and thoughtful 11-year-old boy whose life ended too soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
She spoke to Piper directly and said it would be a luxury to be in a cell compared to what Piper forced Lopez to endure for nearly two years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat kind of human tortures a child?\u201d Lennox asked the courtroom aloud.<\/p>\n
Memories of Lopez continued through Shipley, who shared a victim impact statement via Zoom. She explained Rochelle kept a diary that she one day hoped to share with her son. Shipley read an excerpt written by Rochelle in February 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cI miss you so much and think about you all the time,\u201d said Shipley, as she quoted an excerpt from the journal.<\/p>\n
Shipley told the court, and Piper\u2019s sons who were present, that they, too, are responsible.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are all responsible,\u201d said Shipley.<\/p>\n
\u2018I Found Strength To Tell The Truth\u2019: Piper\u2019s Sons Share Firsthand Accounts Of Her Abuse<\/h3>\n
A freshman in high school with a driver\u2019s license, a life Piper will never get to see. In his own victim impact statement, Piper\u2019s son, Carson, wrote about the abuse he witnessed and endured. Overcome with emotion as he stood to address the court, his statement was read to the court by his family friend.<\/p>\n
\u201cI participated in this abuse. I never found the strength to tell the truth, maybe if I would have, [Roman] would be alive,\u201d Carson wrote in his statement.<\/p>\n
Piper, unmoved, did not look in her son\u2019s direction, but instead, kept her eyes straight ahead from her seat in the jury box.<\/p>\n
Carson\u2019s statement detailed the ways Piper told her children to lie about the abuse they experienced at home and that she went as far as to take them out of public school for, what she called, homeschooling, to avoid questions from teachers and Child Protective Services.<\/p>\n
\u201cLindsay spent years telling lies,\u201d Carson wrote in his statement. \u201cI hope you never get out.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Caron\u2019s statement was finished being read, he walked back to his seat in the row in front of Farah, and the two embraced. Both had audible displays of emotion and tears. Brock, Carson\u2019s brother, paused before he began to read his own victim impact statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot just Roman, seven kids you abused,\u201d Brock said directly to Piper, who maintained her gaze straight ahead, never looking directly at her son.<\/p>\n
He told her, \u201cyou sicken me,\u201d and laid out the abuse at the hands of his mother.<\/p>\n
Roman was, at times, zip-tied with one hand in the air, and locked in a box or closet with little to no nutrition. The judge would later say that Lopez weighed only 42 pounds when he died \u2014 the same weight as he was when he was 5 years old.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy boys beat her. Roman got justice in the best way that he could. That\u2019s not what he deserved, but she was finally beaten,\u201d said Marcus Garvin, Lindsay Piper\u2019s sons\u2019 biological father.<\/p>\n
He spoke to the court about Piper who he said was \u201cdestroying lives since I\u2019ve known you.\u201d<\/p>\n
An \u201cunsightly stain on the tapestry of motherhood\u201d is how Garvin described Piper to the court. He added, \u201cHe beat you, Roman stopped you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garvin said he believed Piper never saw children in a way that was parental but instead, saw them as \u201cpossessions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Justice Served: How the Community Remembers Roman Lopez<\/h3>\n
When Lopez was first reported missing in January 2020 in Placerville, the community rallied to find him. Neighbors told CBS13 at the time they spent the night door-knocking to find him. But the news no one wanted to hear came the next day when authorities announced he was dead.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hoped that he was going to be found safe,\u201d said Diane Simonian, a Placerville resident.<\/p>\n
Then, the community learned who was arrested in his death: Jordan and Lindsay Piper. The pair faced multiple charges in February 2021 that included child abuse, poisoning and torture. The next October, murder charges followed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very horrific to think this could happen in our little town,\u201d said Simonian.<\/p>\n
In November 2021, family members told CBS13 they know\u00a0the kids who were living inside the house<\/a>\u00a0where Roman lived and shared new information with police. They say it was this information that likely led investigators to evidence that allowed them to piece together the horrors that Lopez endured.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the problem when somebody dies, there\u2019s never really any justice. There\u2019s no way to make things right again,\u201d said Priscilla Cortez, who lives in Placerville.<\/p>\n
At the time, police investigators told CBS13 the new evidence and ability to charge the Pipers with murder was \u201cgreat news.\u201d Now, after Lindsay Piper\u2019s sentencing, community members and the assistant district attorney told CBS13 this is a piece of justice.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of us have felt the pain of losing Roman and have mourned him for a long time. Unfortunately, we can\u2019t bring him back. Nobody can, but we hope today is a step forward of healing for the entire community,\u201d said Lisette Suder, the El Dorado County Assistant District Attorney.<\/p>\n
\u2018Next Step\u2019 Toward Justice: Lopez\u2019s Father<\/h3>\n
Jordan Piper pleaded not guilty to the charges related to Lopez\u2019s abuse, torture, and death. A\u00a0criminal complaint<\/a>\u00a0filed in June revealed federal agents found more than 400 nude photos of an underage girl on Piper\u2019s phone.<\/p>\n
The document also claims Piper placed a GoPro camera behind a wall outlet in the bathroom of a rental home in Groveland. Federal agents say many of the videos found on the camera were of an underage girl bathing.<\/p>\n
He has not been arraigned on these federal charges but will appear in El Dorado County at the end of July on the charges related to his son\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
See Video Report<\/a> on CBS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Family Shares Abuse Endured<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1594"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1597,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594\/revisions\/1597"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}