WA man convicted of murder for shooting Newark father. The DA says it was a vengeance for daughter’s death

DUBLIN — The father of a teen who died on a San Jose freeway has been convicted of murdering the man whose son he blamed for the deadly crash.

Louie Sixto Lopez, 56, of Vancouver, Washington, now faces 50 years to life in prison after jurors found him guilty of first degree murder with a gun enhancement. Prosecutors described the Dec. 2, 2022 killing as a vengeance plot by a man heartbroken over his daughter’s death, who brought a gun with him to settle the score.

Lopez was represented by Chief Public Defender Brendon Woods, who argued jurors should be debating involuntary manslaughter, not murder. Lopez testified during trial that the shooting was accidental, the result of a struggle over the gun, and that he was simply searching for answers to his daughter’s death.

“We respect the jury’s decision, but we are very disappointed with the outcome,” Woods said in a recent statement.” Two families have suffered unimaginable tragedies, and we continue to believe that Mr. Lopez did not intend to kill Mr. Cantu.

The victim, 40-year-old Reynaldo Cantu, was killed in front of his home on Sunset Avenue. Video from a surveillance camera shows Lopez walk up, order him out of a parked car at gunpoint, and tell Cantu to come with him. There were two shots, one that Cantu initially survived — as evidenced by his screaming in pain — and a second that went through his head and killed him. His wife discovered Cantu, dead, just seconds after the shooting, as Lopez was leaving the area.

Deputy District Attorney Ted McGarvey said there was “unequivocal, overwhelming” evidence of premeditated murder and offered jurors two ways to get there: either viewing the shooting itself in isolation, or Lopez’s decision to bring what McGarvey called a “kidnapping” kit in his car, parked two blocks away. The bag contained rope and zip ties. Woods said the police were exaggerating it and that Lopez didn’t even know who Cantu was when he approached the home.

The tragic series of events started two months earlier. Danielle Lopez, Louie’s 16-year-old daughter, was killed Oct. 2, 2022 on Interstate 680 in San Jose. Her boyfriend told police that they were arguing and she got out of the car on Interstate 680 in San Jose, only to be struck by multiple cars. Lopez’s family didn’t buy the story and blamed her boyfriend.

Louie Lopez, a San Jose native, returned to the Bay Area to bury his daughter, then came back a second time to find out more about what happened to her. Two months after she was killed he headed to the Cantu family home with a gun. The entire interaction between the two fathers lasted only a few seconds. A large group of both families attended the trial, which lasted about a week. Jurors deliberated less than a full day before reaching the verdict.

The circumstances surrounding Danielle’s death continue to be an open question. Her boyfriend was never charged, though he was sentenced to probation for battering a police officer about five weeks after Danielle was killed. He remained in jail with that case pending when Cantu was murdered.

Woods said in a statement his office hopes the case, “brings greater attention to the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr. Lopez’s daughter, Danielle, and that his family may someday receive answers and justice.”