A Wilmington man convicted of first-degree murder for shooting a bar employee in Long Beach 11 times in a crime caught on video was sentenced today to 50 years to life in state prison.
Moments before being sentenced for killing James Lopez, Salvador Martinez Rivera said, “I just want to apologize to all you guys. … I’m sorry.”
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Laura Laesecke imposed the maximum sentence against Martinez Rivera, calling the case “very disturbing.”
“You emptied the whole gun into Mr. Lopez,” she told the 36-year-old defendant, saying that Martinez Rivera hit the victim after he fell to the ground at the Crow’s Nest near the 1900 block of Willow Street.
Martinez Rivera was convicted Feb. 13 of first-degree murder for the Jan. 16, 2022, slaying of Lopez, a 39-year-old father of three from Bell. Jurors also found true a gun allegation.
Deputy District Attorney Karen Brako said authorities believe that the two men had some type of altercation during the prior week and that they were involved in a conversation in which the victim gave him a “thumbs-up” and the defendant turned around, pulled out a gun and fired 11 times.
When the gun ran out of bullets, Martinez Rivera pistol-whipped the victim with the weapon and then subsequently kicked him as he ran past him and out the door, according to the prosecutor, who noted that there was nothing to support the defendant’s claim that the victim had used a slur against him.
The prosecutor said she believed that the defendant’s apology was “not sincere.”
Two of the victim’s young children spoke at the defendant’s sentencing.
“To the person who killed my daddy — why do you do bad things?” the victim’s daughter, Emily, asked Martinez Rivera in a barely audible statement read in court. “Why did you think killing my daddy was OK? What was the reason you wanted to take my daddy’s life? … I wish we had my daddy back. My daddy’s last words to me were, ‘I love you, baby.’”
The victim’s son, Michael, called the defendant a “bad guy who killed and took my daddy away from me and my family.”
He called his father “my true love” and “the best daddy ever” and said “he is always in my heart.”
The children’s mother, Elizabeth Raya, said, “To know James Arthur Lopez was to love James Arthur Lopez. He was one of a kind.”
“You took my babies’ world and you turned it upside down for the rest of their lives,” she added. “ … You took away the love of my life. I’ll never understand why you did what you did.”
In an emotional statement, the victim’s mother, Christina, told Martinez Rivera that he had “shattered my heart into little pieces,” and she called him a coward who “had revenge in your heart.”
She said she didn’t believe the defendant’s claim that he acted in the heat of passion after hearing the alleged slur.
“You shot him 11 times. Now, for me, that’s overkill,” she said, saying that she believes he went to the bar with a gun with the mindset of “going to take him out.”
She said it was the second tragedy for the family, noting that her godson had previously been murdered.
Lopez was taken to a nearby hospital after the attack, where he subsequently died.
Martinez Rivera was arrested five days later during a traffic stop near the intersection of Riverside Drive and Roswell Avenue in Chino, according to police. He has remained behind bars since then.