SAN JOSE — A man has been charged with murder on allegations he savagely beat his wife to point where their son described her as “unrecognizable” — with their young children at home — then brought the dying woman to a hospital where he reportedly confessed to the crime.
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Roy Anthony Lopez, 37, was arraigned Wednesday on charges of murder in the death of his 34-year-old wife, with an additional charge of child endangerment. A probable cause affidavit accompanying the criminal charges alleges that Lopez savagely hit the victim, identified by family and authorities as both Jasmyne Garcia and Jasmyn Lopez, and that she struggled to function after the attack.
The child endangerment charge pertains to the couple’s 6-year-old son who reportedly witnessed the attack and ran for cover under a bed. Their 3-year-old daughter was also present, authorities said.
Lopez is also accused of assaulting the victim’s 14-year-old son — to whom Lopez was a stepfather — prior to the deadly violence; the teen told police he later came home to discover his gravely injured mother.
The defendant briefly appeared in court Wednesday and did not enter a plea; Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Hector Ramon remanded him to jail and ordered him to return to court Dec. 15. Ramon also issued domestic violence protective orders barring Lopez from having any contact with his three children.
“This is an incredibly tragic case. Mr. Lopez killed his wife by beating her to death in front of their two small children, and her oldest child then came home to find his mother in very critical condition,” Deputy District Attorney Barbara Cathcart said after the arraignment. “Despite her being in that condition, she was not taken to the hospital for several hours.
Morgan Hill police said they were notified by San Jose police around 9:20 a.m. Saturday that Lopez had arrived at Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose — near the city’s border with Los Gatos — and told medical personnel there that he had killed his wife.
They went to Lopez’s car parked nearby and found the victim; after trying to resuscitate her, they pronounced her dead. Lopez was arrested by San Jose police officers, who then contacted Morgan Hill police after learning that the killing reportedly happened at his home in that city.
Officers went to Lopez’s apartment in the 1100 block of Vintage Lane and found a crime scene, as well as three children ages 14, 6 and 3. The children were later placed in the custody of the county Department of Family and Children’s Services, police said.
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The victim’s name has not been formally released by the Santa Clara County Office of the Medical Examiner, but her family identified her as Jasmyne Garcia in a GoFundMe page paying tribute to her life and seeking financial support for her surviving children. The affidavit lists her as Jasmyn Lopez.
“She had a beautiful way of bringing light, laughter and joy wherever she went. The love and happiness she gave to the people around her are impossible to put into words,” the fundraising page reads. “She was a beloved daughter, a proud daddy’s girl, a sister to one but truly a sister to so many. She was the kind of person who made people feel loved and welcomed and her presence touched more lives than she may have ever realized.”
In the affidavit, Morgan Hill Detective Kyle Tolentino cited an account from the teen son that Lopez appeared intoxicated the day before the death. The boy told police that when he asked Lopez if he could ride bikes with a friend, the defendant cornered the child, “grabbed him by the neck, and slammed his head against the bed multiple times.”
The teen stated that when he returned home around 8 p.m., the house was in “disarray,” and he “observed blood throughout the residence, holes in the walls, water throughout the kitchen” and other signs of a clash. Soon after, he found the victim “awake but unable to speak, groaning in pain, and suffering from severe facial injuries,” according to the affidavit.
“He stated her eyes were swollen, her face appeared inflamed, and she was unrecognizable,” the detective wrote. “Throughout the night, he observed Jasmyn repeatedly lose consciousness while remaining unable to care for herself.”
That condition included the teen recalling that his mother defecated on herself and could not stand. The couple’s 6-year-old son told police that he “hid underneath a bed” during the deadly attack, and explained that Lopez punched his mother in the face “because ‘Daddy got mad.’”
The following morning, the teen son said Lopez took his mother to the hospital, with the younger son telling police that Lopez was covered in blood.
Anyone with further information on this incident can contact contact Morgan Hill Police Sgt. Sean Bayard at 408-607-3032 or [email protected].
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