California Teen Murdered, Abducted While Walking Home, Suspect Sentenced to Death 10 Years Later

A California teen disappeared 10 years ago while walking home from school. On Friday, the 17-year-old girl was brought to justice after her convicted killer was sentenced to death, according to a People report.

A jury found Jesse Torres, 44, guilty of one count of first-degree murder. He was also charged with kidnapping. A judge confirmed the sentencing recommendation last year.

Norma Lopez was walking home from Valley View High School on Jul. 15, 2010, in Moreno Valley, California. Lopez was walking to a friend's house but she never arrived, according to officials.

The community looked around the area after discovering her school binder, purse, and a broken earring. Her remains were found five days later in a grove of trees about two miles away from where she disappeared. Earlier reports said that the body was too decomposed to identify.

DNA key evidence in the case

Police then notified the Lopez family as a precaution that the found remains may be Norma's. At the time the family have requested for privacy, as reported by The Press-Enterprise.

Torres lived in the same neighborhood as Lopez. He was identified as the suspect and was charged in 2011. Torres' DNA played an important role in his prosecution, according to reports.

Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Kevin Beecham told jurors that Torres left his DNA all over her pants, purse, and earrings.

"It all points to the same person," Beecham was quoted on a report.

A spokesman for the Riverside County District Attorney, John Hall, said that the jury deliberated for about an hour Wednesday before notifying the judge of their decision.

Sentencing date yet to be determined

A sentencing date, however, was not yet decided. Hall said the suspect's attorneys plan to introduce proof that he has an intellectual disability that would invalidate him from receiving the death penalty.

This was in accord to a Supreme Court ruling that determined it would be inhumane to execute someone with disability.

Riverside County's chief pathologist, Dr. Mark Fajardo, testified during trial that he could only hypothesize how Lopez was killed.

Fajardo suspected that Lopez had been strangled. A security camera from a house near Lopez's school recorded the last footage of Lopez alive.

The video was used as an evidence in the trial, which also shoed a green SUV rounding slowly in the direction that she was walking. Shown in the footage, the vehicle reappeared less than five minutes later.

Torres owned a green Nissan Xterra at the time of the crime based on the prosecution's information. Lopez's sister read a letter from the family at the sentencing hearing.

"I took Norma to school that day not knowing it was the last time I will ever see her again. That's the day this nightmare started. Without Norma, my house was filled with pain and sadness," Lopez's mother wrote in a letter released by the Riverside County District Attorney Office.

Judge Bernard J. Schwartz read the juror's sentencing recommendation inside a courtroom at the Riverside County.