UPDATE, MARCH 12, 3:48 P.M.: A jury today found Jorge Alejandro Lopez guilty of beating another man him with his fists, stomping on his head and slamming a
16-pound concrete boulder on his chest before the victim died.
The 35-year-old, sometimes-Santa Ana-transient was convicted of one felony count of second degree murder with a true finding on
the sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a deadly weapon.
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He faces the possibility of 16 years to life in state prison at his sentencing scheduled for May 11 in Santa Ana.
ORIGINAL POST, MARCH 5, 7:29 A.M.: Jorge Alejandro Lopez is scheduled to face trail this morning for allegedly murdering another
man by beating him with his fists, stomping on his head and slamming a
16-pound concrete boulder on his chest.
The 35-year-old,
sometimes-Santa Ana-transient, could get 26 years to life in state
prison if convicted of the charges against him: murder with a sentencing
enhancement for the personal use of a deadly weapon.
On July 17, 2010, Lopez allegedly walked up to Marco Rojo Nieto at a Santa Ana homeless encampment and punched
the 36-year-old in the face without provocation.
Nieto was knocked to the ground, where Lopez is further accused of kicking and
stomping on Nieto's head while he was lying defenseless on the ground.
The killshot came when a 16-pound concrete boulder was slammed into the chest of Nieto, who later died, leaving behind a wife and teenage daughter.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.