Man offers mental illness plea in parents’ murder

Bill Gang

Thursday, Feb. 12, 1998 | 10:20 a.m.

A Las Vegas man with a troubled past has pleaded guilty but mentally ill to a count of second-degree murder for killing his parents.

Oswaldo Lopez, 23, who police said admitted to stabbing his parents with a common kitchen knife because God told him to do it, will have to serve 20 years in prison before he will be eligible for parole.

The guilty but mentally ill plea does not constitute an insanity defense, which is no longer valid in Nevada. It does mean, however, that Lopez's sentence will be served in a secure facility where he can obtain some mental health care.

Police were called to the Lopez home in the summer of 1996 and found Aswaldo Lopez, 52, dead on the hallway floor and Aida Lopez, 53, dead on the living room floor. The knives were still in their bodies, Metro Police Homicide Det. Kevin Mannning said shortly after the incident.

The father was a busboy at a local hotel-casino. Aida Lopez was a housewife, and her son was unemployed, police said.

Oswaldo Lopez had been in trouble with the law since he was a teenager, detectives said.

There were a few minor offenses on his record, but because most of the scrapes with police occurred when Lopez was underage, police could not release details.

However, police also had responded to several domestic dispute calls at the home at 23 Arlington Ave., near Nellis and Charleston boulevards, Manning said.

After the arrest, Manning said Lopez "didn't seem real remorseful."