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Woman sentenced for role in sex ring murder

Posted at 2:27 PM, Jan 08, 2016
and last updated 2016-01-08 18:52:53-05

VISTA, Calif. - A woman involved in the torture and killing of a Marine wife as part of a sadomasochistic fantasy sex ring was sentenced Friday to life without the possibility of parole.

Jessica Lynn Lopez, 28, was convicted in Oct. 2015, of first-degree murder and multiple other counts in the April 13, 2012, death of Brittany Killgore. Jurors found true a special circumstance allegation that the murder happened during a kidnapping.

Two others in the case -- 49-year-old Louis Ray Perez and 40-year-old Dorothy Maraglino, were also convicted of first-degree murder and other charges in October. They were each sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in mid-November.

Killgore had just filed for divorce from her Marine husband, who was deployed to Afghanistan, when she was killed. Prosecutors said Killgore was lured to a meeting with Perez, and her body was found four days later in Riverside County.

According to Deputy District Attorney Patrick Espinoza, a stun baton found in the back of Perez's SUV had the victim's DNA on it. A plastic sheet in the back of Perez's car also had the victim's blood on it.

Lopez's attorney, Sloan Ostbye, told jurors that her client was a victim to a "slave" contract she entered into with Maraglino in the bondage and sadomasochistic world. Ostbye presented Lopez as a patsy, an abused servant forced to take the blame for a crime she did not commit.

Perez's attorney, Brad Patton, told the jury that Lopez committed the murder.

In 2011, he said, Lopez was heartbroken when another woman came between Perez and Maraglino, who were in an open relationship at the time.

Maraglino's attorney, Jane Kinsey, told the jury that her client had abandoned her BD/SM lifestyle while she was pregnant.