Iowa man gets life sentences for killing woman, 2 children
A Des Moines man has been sentenced to three consecutive life terms in prison for killing a woman and her two children.
By News Channel NebraskaDES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Des Moines man has been sentenced to three consecutive life terms in prison for killing a woman and her two children.
Prosecutor Kevin Hathaway told a Polk County district judge Friday that the murder of Rosibeth Flores-Rodriguez was “horrific,” but the murders of her two children were worse, the Des Moines Register reported.
Judge David Porter sentenced Marvin Esquivel Lopez, 34, to consecutive life sentences in the 2019 deaths of the 29-year-old mother and 11-year-old Grecia Daniela Alvarado-Flores and 5-year-old Ever Jose Mejia-Flores.
Esquivel Lopez was convicted in January of shooting Flores Rodriguez during an argument in his Des Moines home, then killing her children.
“To go into that basement and end the lives of two innocent children, who had never done anything wrong, cutting their lives so short, it’s unthinkable, your Honor,” Hathaway said.
Flores-Rodriguez and her children had arrived in Iowa from Honduras about five months before their deaths and lived with Esquivel Lopez and his family.
Betty Rodriguez, the mother and grandmother of the victims, traveled from Honduras for Friday’s sentencing.
“My heart is missing three pieces,” she said in a prepared statement ready by a court attendant. “My life is not the same any more.”