Sex slave who killed Marine’s wife claims she was just following masters’ orders —but the judge isn’t buying it
A self-proclaimed “sex slave” saw her bid to vacate her conviction for killing a Marine’s wife rejected after a California judge ruled it was “unreasonable” to believe she was just following orders from her “masters” in the brutal BDSM slaying.
Jessica Lopez, 36, who described herself as a slave and in a relationship with Marine Staff Sgt. Louis Ray Perez and his girlfriend Dorothy Maraglino, initially confessed to the 2012 murder of Brittany Killgore, 22.
Killgore, whose husband was serving in Afghanistan, was abducted by the BDSM-loving trio, forced into sexual bondage, tortured and strangled before police found her body in a ditch on April 17, 2012.
The gruesome details were uncovered in a seven-page confession letter Lopez wrote when she attempted to kill herself in a San Diego inn after Killgore’s body was found.
But last week, Lopez backtracked on her confession, claiming she wasn’t actually present when Killgore was killed and that her confession and attempted suicide were all at the behest of Maraglino in an alleged attempt to place all the blame on the “slave,” the San Diego Union Tribune reports.
Lopez argued that her conviction should be thrown out under a 2018 California law change that allowed accomplices who did not take part in the actual killings to avoid murder charges.
Superior Court Judge Robert Kearney, however, rejected Lopez’s story on Tuesday.
“I don’t find it to be a credible or reasonable assertion of what occurred that day,” Kearney said.
The judge explained that given the master-mistress-slave relationship, it appeared clear that Lopez was willing to take part in the murder.
Prosecutors said during the trials that Killgore was divorcing her husband, Corey, and looking to move out when she was approached by Perez, who offered to help her.
In reality, Killgore had fallen for a plot cooked up by Maraglino, who disliked her, with the couple and Lopez kidnapping her on April 13, 2012.
Sloan Ostbye, Lopez’s attorney, argued last week that the “sex slave” had no control over the situation, and was told to watch TV upstairs while the couple tortured Killgore.
“She was willing to be cut, tattooed, eat out of bowls, even willing to kill herself,” Ostbye said of her client. “She was so controlled and brainwashed, she did whatever she was told to do.”
But Kearney rejected the argument, noting that Lopez was in a consensual BDSM relationship with the couple, and it should have been clear that what they were doing to Killgore was wrong.
The judge also rejected Lopez ‘s claim that she had no free will, again pointing to the consensual nature of her relationship and her willingness to please her “mistress.”
“She was quite obviously willing to do anything she could to please Miss Maraglino, and I do believe that included killing,” Kearney said.
Killgore’s parents, Darryl and Michelle Wrest, attended Tuesday’s hearing virtually and while they were thankful for the judge’s ruling, they slammed the California law that allowed Lopez to try to appeal her case after all these years.
“Re-litigating this was absurd,” Michelle told the Tribune, noting that she and her husband had to fly out from Missouri to attend Lopez’s testimony last week.
“We are very frustrated. It’s very difficult,” the grieving mother added.
