Jordan Piper: Californian man who killed 11-year-old son and reported him missing sentenced to 15 years

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EL DORADO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA: A man from California will serve at least fifteen years in prison for killing their eleven-year-old son along with their spouse, hiding the boy's body, and then filing a missing person's report.

A judge in El Dorado County sentenced 38-year-old Jordan Thomas Piper to 15 years to life in prison on Thursday for the murder of Roman Anthony Lopez, whose body was found on January 11, 2020, concealed in a storage bin in the family's basement.

Jordan Piper pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for Roman Lopez's death

Late in October 2023, Jordan Piper entered into a plea agreement for one count of second-degree murder, acknowledging his role in Roman's demise. 

The boy's father and his 40-year-old adoptive mother, Lindsay Piper, initially pleaded not guilty to several charges related to Lopez's death, stating they were innocent. Their façades disintegrated quickly.

Due to Lopez's passing, the couple was accused of torturing and abusing their child in February 2021. Lindsay Piper was accused of poisoning the boy, and Jordan Piper was accused of purposefully neglecting to give him food and water.

They faced murder charges in October 2021. Eventually, an autopsy would reveal that Lopez had been extremely malnourished and dehydrated right up until his passing. When he passed away, he weighed 42 pounds.

According to his relatively healthy medical records from two years prior to his death, he weighed sixty-one pounds. The medical records from 2018 list his most recent visit with a physician.

Apart from the deliberate starvation regimen, Lopez was subjected to frequent beatings and nighttime restraints with zip ties. To the press, the Pipers initially claimed complete ignorance.

Lindsay Marie Piper mingled poison with Roman Lopez's food, drink

In a special interview that appeared in The Sacramento Bee on February 4, 2021, Jordan Piper said, “We have no idea what happened, where they found him, what the autopsy report said, if that’s even done, any suspects, nothing. We have nothing.”

The Pipers gave the newspaper a story about a boy who liked to hide everywhere in an attempt to come up with a plausible explanation for why the boy was discovered dead in their basement only hours after he was reported missing.

The couple was initially charged the following day. The stepmother's criminal complaint claimed that Lindsay Marie Piper had 'willfully and unlawfully mingled a poison and harmful substance with food, drink, medicine and pharmaceutical product'.

Lindsay Piper entered a "no contest" plea in May 2022 in response to a single charge of second-degree murder. In July 2022, her sentence was increased from 15 years to life in prison.

Just before the defendant was sentenced, Judge Vicki Ashworth chastised her, telling Sacramento CBS affiliate KOVR that she "didn't deserve to be [Roman's] stepmother, quite frankly" and that "the court can think of no more evil person than that."

Roman Lopez 'was zip-tied at times in the closet'

The plea of guilty was entered in place of not guilty for Jordan Piper. According to the El Dorado County District Attorney's Office, he appeared in El Dorado County Superior Court and was found guilty that same day.

Originally, last November, a sentence was scheduled for him.

That initial sentencing date was canceled due to issues with a Zoom call, according to KCRA.

Reiterating her critical tone towards the child's father, Ashworth stated that it was Jordan Piper's responsibility to transform a child into a man, as reported by the Bee.

“You absolutely utterly and completely not only failed in that respect, but it was at your hands that he was abused to the point where he had bruises on his wrist from being zip-tied to his bed,” the judge said.

“He was zip-tied at times in the closet, was given an over amount of sodium or salt in his diet, forced to wear diapers at the age of 11 years old.”

After a protracted and ultimately fruitless custody battle spanning multiple states, Roman Lopez's mother, Rochelle Lopez, passed away in 2021. One of Lopez's friends claimed in a witness impact statement that Jordan Piper had been abusing the child for years prior to his death.

Ashworth said to the condemned man on Thursday, "It wasn’t as if he was a human being to yourself and Ms. Piper but rather an object and nothing more. An inconvenience, if you will.”

Jordan Piper gets 15-year prison sentence

In the Golden State, a conviction for second-degree murder carries a maximum sentence of 15 years to life in prison. Deputy District Attorney Jay Linden told KCRA that the decision was made strategically following the hearing.

“You balance the things. You want to get closure. You want certainty. You want justice.”

The day after Jordan Piper was found guilty in a federal case of child sexual exploitation of making "surreptitious recordings" of a girl under the age of eighteen, he was sentenced to fifteen years in prison.

That was when he changed his plea. In June 2022, federal prosecutors filed charges against him for that offense.

Although there is no connection between the two cases, the murder investigation led to the creation of the child sexual exploitation investigation.

The Placerville Police Department took several digital devices from the Piper home while they were looking into Lopez's murder.

They found evidence of child sexual abuse in materials created in Tuolumne and El Dorado counties between October 2019 and January 2020.

“Approximately 433 nude images of Minor Victim 1 were found on Jordan Piper’s cell phone in the cache and screenshots section of the phone, as well as cache folders and screenshot folders in a secure folder on the phone,” federal agents wrote in a criminal complaint.

“Many of those images created by Jordan Piper were focused shots of Minor Victim 1’s genitals or pubic area. In addition, the video camera was placed in a manner to maximize the chances of recording the genitals of Minor Victim 1 and other users of the bathroom.”

Jordan Piper's murder sentence will run concurrently with his sentence for sex crimes, per the terms of his plea deal.

Roman's mother's friend Erin Rice stated during the hearing, "I hope when the defendant goes to sleep every night he hears echoes of Roman screaming at the top of his lungs, in fear, in hurt, and in terrified wails much like he did the night before his death," according to CBS News.

“He’s a monster. He’s manipulative, and he is selfish,” Rice said in comments reported by the Bee. “He’s a shell of a man with no moral compass or value. He knew what he was doing was wrong and did it anyway for years and did nothing to stop it.”