The final defendant from the sadomasochistic sex triangle has been sentenced for killing a Marine's wife. 28-year-old Jessica Lopez was given two consecutive life terms on January 8, 2016. She is the last of three defendants who were convicted of kidnapping, torturing and killing Brittany Killgore in 2012.
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, Brittany Killgore, then 22, had filed for divorce from her Marine husband. Brittany Dawn Killgore, who was kidnapped near a Southern California base, was reported missing on April 2012, and was found dead later that year. Louis Ray Perez and Dorothy Grace Marie Maraglino, who have previously been charged a lifetime sentence without parole, had been engaged in a BDSM lifestyle with Lopez, and had decided to turn their fantasies into reality by abducting Killgore. Perez had asked her out on a dinner cruise, which she initially rejected but eventually accepted the offer. Prosecutors say that Killgore did not willingly engage in BDSM, but was forced into it by the three. She was killed just 4 days before she was supposed to move to Pennsylvania, where her parents lived.
During the trial, several witnesses said Lopez was Maraglino's slave in their arrangement. Her lawyers tried to pass a motion to have Lopez tried separately, but was denied. According to Los Angeles Times, Lopez was found four days later after the crime was commited in a Point Loma hotel room, with injuries and a note pointing to a failed suicide attempt, with Killgore's body discovered later that day, with her nude body dumped in a rural Riverside County spot, near the lake.
Killgore knew the culprits from a friend, which was how she was lured away from her apartment and killed, according to The Sacremento Bee. Later that day, a friend of Killgore's received text messeges from the victim asking for help.
All three were convicted of murder, kidnapping and torture. The jury had also convicted Maraglino and Perez of conspiracy, but acquitted Lopez of that charge.
