Mentally ill man who witnessed sister’s killing enters insanity plea in coworker death

A Fresno man on Monday pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the killing a co-worker on Valentine’s Day last year at a biomass power plant south of Fresno.

Aaron Isidro Lopez, 29, is accused in Fresno County Superior Court of murdering 32-year-old Outi Hicks with a pipe.

His lawyer, Gerald Schwab Jr., said Lopez didn’t intend to kill Hicks, but he was suffering hallucinations at the time of the killing caused by his documented history of mental illness, including schizophrenia and post traumatic stress disorder.

For much of Lopez’s life, his mental illness has been untreated, Schwab said. To make matters worse, Schwab said, Lopez witnessed the killing of his 3-year-old sister, Reina Lopez, when he was 7 years old.

The 1994 killing of Reina Lopez by her mother’s boyfriend, Willard Duane Hawkwing, contributed or gave Aaron Lopez his PTSD, Schwab said.

Lopez is being held in the downtown Fresno jail without bail.

Schwab spoke of his client’s mental illnesses in hopes that a jury will find him guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter and not guilty by reason of insanity. This way, Lopez will be sentenced to a state hospital – not prison.

“He should be punished,” Schwab said. “But not with life in prison.”

To determine whether Lopez was insane at the time of the hearing, Judge Michael Idiart on Monday ordered two doctors to examine Lopez. He then ordered Lopez to return to court on March 8 when the doctors’ reports will be discussed.

Sheriff’s officials say Hicks was killed during the afternoon of Feb. 14 at the Rio Bravo plant on Willow Avenue near North Avenue. Hicks and Lopez were contract workers for an unidentified firm at the Rio Bravo facility.

After Hicks was struck, Rio Bravo workers and paramedics tried unsuccessfully to revive her, sheriff’s spokesman Tony Botti said. Meanwhile, Lopez sat in his truck and waited for sheriff’s deputies to arrive, Schwab said.

Court records say criminal proceedings were suspended against Lopez in March last year after his lawyer called into question Lopez’s competency to assist in his defense. Two court-appointed doctors examined Lopez and determined he was incompetent to stand trial.

In June, Lopez was committed to Atascadero State Hospital, where medical staff gave him anti-psychotic medication until his competency was restored.

Schwab said Monday that Lopez has had a horrible life, first by living with an abusive mother.

Prior to her death, Reina Lopez was subjected to “excessive corporal punishment” by her mother, court records say.

On Jan. 23, 1994, Reina Lopez was taken to now-shuttered Valley Medical Center in Fresno where hospital officials told sheriff’s investigators that the child was bruised and brain dead and a victim of child abuse.

Reina’s mother, Dawn Colette Lopez, who has four other children, was initially charged with murder and child abuse in connection with her daughter’s death, court records say. But in March 1994, she pleaded guilty to child endangerment and agreed to testify against Hawkwing in exchange for a prison sentence of four years.

Hawkwing pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in July 1994 to avoid a trial, court records say. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

On Monday, Schwab said Aaron Lopez has never forgotten the beatings that his sister suffered. Because his mother was sentenced to prison, he and his siblings were placed in foster care.

“It really messed him up,” Schwab said.

This story was originally published February 5, 2018 at 3:34 PM with the headline "Mentally ill man who witnessed sister’s killing enters insanity plea in coworker death."