An Orange County jury convicted a man of stabbing to death a Cal State Fullerton student 21 years ago. Vikki Vargas reports for the NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, March 3, 2015.
Jurors reached a guilty verdict Tuesday in the case of one of two cousins accused in the slaying of his former girlfriend more than two decades ago.
Sam Lopez, 43, faced a murder charge in the stabbing death of Cathy Torrez, a Cal State Fullerton student who disappeared in 1994 after leaving work. Lopez and his cousin, Javier Lopez, were arrested in 2007 and charged with murder after DNA evidence provided new leads in the cold case.
Experts testified they found fingerprints and DNA from Javier Lopez around and in the car where the victim's body was discovered, linking him to the crime scene. But prosecutors have said Lopez asked his cousin to help kill Torrez.
Javier Lopez is awaiting trial.
Sam Lopez was portrayed by prosecutors as a jilted lover who was still interested in a relationship with the 20-year-old Torrez, who disappeared after leaving work in February 1994. The relationship was described during the trial as on-again, off-again.
Torrez had been writing a letter, presented as evidence at the trial, to a friend after work just before she was killed, prosecutors said. That letter ended in mid-sentence, marking the point at which she was attacked, prosecutors said.
A retired Orange County forensic scientist testified that the victim was still alive when she was forced into the trunk of her car, where her body was found a week later in Placentia. She was repeatedly stabbed, had wounds to her neck, upper chest, head, chin, forearm, back and right thigh, along with cuts on her hands. She'd been stabbed 70 times.
The case went cold for more than a decade until DNA evidence led to the cousins' arrests.
Family members testified about the defendant's apparent indifference to the disappearance of Torrez. On the night she went missing after leaving work for a date with Lopez, the defendant's sisters repeatedly tried to page him on his beeper but he did not respond, the victim's sister, Tina Mora, testified.
Mora was married at the time to Lopez's older brother, Armando, and living with the Lopez family across the street from the Torrez residence. Mora has since divorced Aramando Lopez, who is charged with being an accessory after the fact.
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Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy told jurors that Samuel Lopez's movements the night of the killing show he had the opportunity to commit the crime. Jurors also saw police interviews in which prosecutors said he changed his story several times.
After the verdict was delivered, Torrez’s mother told NBC4 that God finally answered her prayers.
"Cathy was not able to get away," Mary Bennett said as she fought back tears.
"So, I ran and kept praying every day for 21 years to God and he answered my prayers. Today, he answered my prayers."
The family says over the years their faith helped push them forward.
There is now an after-school center that bears Torrez’s name and a scholarship has been set up in her honor at her alma mater.
"Cathy's life made a great impression on many people," her sister said.
