Lopez’s former cellmate allowed to testify in capital murder trial

A critical witness will be allowed to testify next week in the capital murder trial for Antonio Lopez, the man accused of killing an 11-month-old girl in his care.

Lopez is accused of beating Jayla Beckley, taking her out of her crib and stomping her to death in 2012.

On Wednesday, the jury watched a 2012 taped interview of Lopez confessing to killing Jayla. Friday, an inmate who served time with Lopez was put on the stand. Justin Holmes spoke before an absent jury, allowing the judge to determine if Holmes was a credible witness or not.

Holmes talked about the conversations Lopez had with him while in jail. In one of those conversations, Lopez admitted to “picking her (Jayla) up shoulder high and dropping the baby”.

He said Lopez also confessed to doing numerous things to Jayla, including “slamming a door on the baby”. Holmes said he wrote down the information Lopez gave him, and approached his attorney about alerting authorities about what he heard.

The judge decided to allow Holmes to take the stand in front of a jury next week.

The defense is claiming it was another foster child with a violent past who killed Jayla, not Lopez. The defense claims 15-year-old Abigail Flores admitted to her foster mother that she was the one who killed Jayla.

Her former foster mother, Mari Medina, took the stand Thursday. She was asked by the defense to describe Flores’s violent past. Medina said at one point Abigail, “stabbed another foster child in the back of the head with a pencil.” And on another occasion she, “caught Flores shaking a little boy’s head,” after she had explained to Abigail what shaking baby syndrome was.

Friday, another one of her foster mothers, Elizabeth Chavez, testified. Chavez was Abigail’s foster mother in 2012 for a few months. She was asked by the defense if Abigail had caused any problems and she said yes. Chavez stated “the most serious was when she choked one of the 5-year-olds”. When asked “did you feel it was unsafe with her in the house?”, Chavez replied “yes”.

Chavez later requested Abigail be removed from the house.

Despite both foster mothers’ testimony, Abigail herself tells a different story. While on the stand Thursday, Abigail denied killing Jayla, even saying she doesn’t remember seeing a baby that day.

The trial resumes next week.