Woman pleads no contest to strangling her newborn baby in Castro Valley decades ago, will serve 6-year prison term

OAKLAND — Alameda County prosecutors have reached a plea deal with the Stanislaus County woman who was arrested in 2020 on charges that she strangled her newborn baby and left him in a Castro Valley creekbed more than 30 years ago, court records show.

Lesa Lopez, 55, pleaded no contest to a single count of voluntary manslaughter in the 1988 death of her newborn son. In exchange, prosecutors dropped murder charges against her. As part of the deal she will serve six years in state prison, but remains out of custody until her sentencing date, which has been set for July 21.

In July 2020, Lopez was arrested and charged with murdering the boy, who was posthumously named Richard Jayson Terrance Rein by local church leaders. Authorities in Alameda County employed a genealogical DNA technique similar to that used to catch the Golden State Killer to identify Lopez as the boy’s mother, and by extension, his killer, according to court records.

Annie Beles, an attorney representing Lopez, declined to comment, but in 2020 her law offices put out a statement stating that the tragedy “in no way describes the love and warmth” that Lopez has shown to others in the past 30 years.

“Lesa’s life story is one of a nurturing, caring mother to her two grown sons, wife for 25 years to her husband and grandmother,” the statement reads.

After her arrest, Lopez spent two months in jail, until her attorney convinced a judge to lower her bail from $2 million to $135,000, arguing that she is not a danger to the community, in part because she had been arrest-free the entire time since the crime occurred.

Newspaper reports from May 1988 say authorities found the child had been strangled, and the criminal complaint listed an unspecified “ligature” as weapon. His body was found May 15, 1988, in a paper bag in a creek embankment near the 18000 block of Madison Avenue. Authorities said at the time he had likely died several days before.

After Lopez was identified as the boy’s possible mother, undercover officers followed her around and secretly obtained a DNA sample from an item Lopez discarded into the trash. After a DNA test confirmed she was the mother, Lopez was arrested. During a subsequent police interview, she admitted being the mother and made incriminating statements, police said in court records.

“Lopez told investigators she his her pregnancy from family and friends,” a sworn statement by an Alameda County Sheriff’s investigator says. “Lopez identified the area where she placed the victim’s body and admitted she had acted alone.”