Sam Lopez on Dateline: Cathy Torrez Murder, Trial, and Parole

The Dateline NBC episode “The Promise Kept,” which aired April 24, 2015, told the story of Sam Lopez, who was convicted of the 1994 first-degree murder of his ex-girlfriend Cathy Torrez, a Cal State Fullerton honors student stabbed more than 70 times and left locked in the trunk of her own car. The case sat cold for thirteen years until improved DNA testing linked Lopez and his cousin to the killing, leading to arrests in 2007. Lopez was sentenced to 26 years to life in state prison and admitted to the murder at his sentencing.¹ Correspondent Josh Mankiewicz reported the episode.²

Who Cathy Torrez Was

Cathy Torrez was 20 years old, a junior at California State University, Fullerton, majoring in sociology and planning to become a social worker.³ She had grown up in Placentia, California, and attended Valencia High School, where she began an on-and-off relationship with Sam Lopez.⁴ When she was killed, she was working part-time as a cashier at a Sav-On drugstore in Placentia.⁵

The Night of the Murder

In the week leading up to her death, Torrez and Lopez had been fighting. A Placentia officer had seen Lopez speeding and running a stop sign with a crying Torrez in the car, and days later she came home with slashed tires that neither could explain. A friend testified that the argument began when Lopez discovered a hickey on Torrez given by another man. That Sunday, Lopez asked her to elope with him. By Thursday she had told him no for good.⁶

On Saturday, February 12, 1994, Torrez finished her evening shift at Sav-On and told a co-worker she was going to meet Lopez. She was last seen around 8:00 p.m. driving toward a nearby Baskin Robbins, where she parked at about 8:15 p.m. Lopez and his cousin, Xavier Francisco Lopez, met her there. Prosecutors said an argument broke out inside the car, Lopez attacked her with a knife, and when she tried to run he chased her and stabbed her repeatedly in the face, head, and torso, more than 70 times in all. He then placed her body in the trunk, drove to another location, and used a newspaper and plastic bag to cut her wrists and throat while she was still alive. Xavier Lopez closed the trunk, according to prosecutors.¹

One week later, on February 19, 1994, a Placentia officer found her burgundy 1990 Toyota Corolla in the parking lot of Placentia-Linda Hospital, less than three miles from her home. Her body was in the trunk.⁷ Heavy rains during the week she was missing had washed away much of the physical evidence around the vehicle.³

Why the Case Went Cold

Torrez had not been robbed or sexually assaulted, and investigators suspected from the beginning that she was killed by someone she knew.⁵ Police interviewed Lopez soon after the body was found and grew suspicious because he showed little emotion, was not truthful, and had not helped search for her while she was missing.⁶ But there was no crime scene, no weapon, and no witness who could place Torrez with anyone that night. Sam and Xavier alibied each other, and the case stalled.

Xavier Lopez was briefly arrested in 1997 after re-analyzed DNA and fingerprints tied him to the car, but the Orange County District Attorney’s office released him, calling the evidence too weak for trial.⁴ Placentia Police Sergeant Daron Wyatt took over the investigation around that time and worked it for the next decade, pushing crime technicians to use improved DNA technology on evidence from Torrez’s shirt and inside the car.⁸ Torrez’s mother, Mary Bennett, kept the case in front of investigators. By June 2006, the Placentia Police Department had put in roughly 6,000 hours and about $300,000 on the case.

The DNA Breakthrough and 2007 Arrests

Additional forensic testing completed in June 2007 produced results that, according to investigators, solidly linked both cousins to the killing. DNA on the victim’s shirt was tied to Xavier Lopez; DNA on the steering wheel and driver’s side door was tied to Sam Lopez.⁸

On July 6, 2007, police made three arrests:

Samuel Lopez, then 35, was charged with murder.
Xavier Lopez, also 35, was charged with murder.
Armando Lopez, 36, Sam’s brother, was charged with being an accessory after the fact and dissuading a witness from reporting a crime; police said he had helped conceal the killing and told a witness to stay silent.⁴

The 2015 Trial

Sam Lopez’s trial began in February 2015 at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana, more than twenty years after the killing. Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy prosecuted the case, which was built largely on circumstantial evidence; no physical evidence directly placed Sam Lopez’s hands on Torrez’s body, a point the defense pressed throughout.⁶

Murphy told jurors that jealousy over the hickey and Torrez’s refusal to elope drove Lopez to kill her, and that Lopez cut her throat while she was still alive in the trunk. “That young woman was alive, she was suffering and she was scared,” Murphy said in closing. “And Sam Lopez cut her throat.”⁶ Defense attorney Lewis Rosenblum called the investigation “bungled from the start” and argued Xavier Lopez had acted alone, killing Torrez during a robbery for drug money.⁹

Former detective Daron Wyatt testified about early missteps in the original investigation, including a years-long delay before DNA was compared to potential suspects and an early interview in which detectives falsely told Lopez they had found his bloody fingerprints in the car.¹⁰ The jury deliberated about two days. On March 3, 2015, they found Sam Lopez guilty of first-degree murder with a sentencing enhancement for personal use of a deadly weapon.¹¹

Sentencing and Courtroom Confession

On May 1, 2015, Sam Lopez was sentenced to 26 years to life in state prison. For the first time, he admitted to killing Torrez. He told the court “everything they said was true,” called the murder a “horrible act,” and said Torrez “was a wonderful person with a promising future and I took everything from her.”¹²

Torrez’s older sister, Tina Mora, told the court, “It brought so much pain to hear him say what he did to my sister. It rocks you to the core,” and urged Lopez to disclose the full details of the killing. Her younger sister, Debbie Torrez, said, “My family has suffered for 21 years not knowing whether there would be justice for Cathy.” Their mother, Mary Bennett, said she still believed Lopez had “no remorse for what he did.” Lopez did not look at the family during the hearing.¹³

What Happened to the Cousin and the Brother

Xavier Francisco Lopez had originally been charged with special-circumstances murder involving torture, which carried a potential sentence of life without parole. On October 16, 2015, he pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and being an accessory after the fact, and the murder charge was dismissed. He was sentenced to four years and eight months in jail with credit for roughly sixteen and a half years already served since his 2007 arrest. The plea required him to give investigators details about the killing.¹⁴

Armando Lopez, Sam’s brother, had been charged with felony accessory after the fact and felony dissuading a witness. At the time of the 1994 murder, he was married to one of Torrez’s sisters. On February 24, 2017, he pleaded guilty to a reduced misdemeanor count of dissuading a witness in exchange for the felony charge being dropped, and he was sentenced to one year of informal probation.¹⁵

Parole Status

In March 2023, the California parole board denied Sam Lopez’s bid for parole and ruled that he could return for another hearing in three years, placing his next possible hearing around 2026.¹⁶

1
Orange County District Attorney. Man Sentenced to 26 Years to Life in Prison for 1994 Stabbing Murder
2
Amazon Music. Dateline NBC – The Promise Kept
3
Cal State Fullerton. Arrests Made in 1994 Murder of CSUF Student
4
Los Angeles Times. Arrests in 1994 Slaying of Placentia Woman
5
Los Angeles Times. Slaying of Placentia Woman Remains Unsolved
6
Orange County Register. Prosecutor in Cathy Torrez Murder Case: Jealousy Led to Murder
7
Orange County Register. Missing Placentia Student Found Dead
8
Orange County Register. Trial Begins in 1994 Stabbing Death That Rocked Placentia Community
9
Orange County Register. Defense Claims in 1994 Placentia Stabbing Trial
10
Orange County Register. Testimony: Police Missteps Delayed Investigation Into 1994 Stabbing Death
11
CBS News Los Angeles. Ex-Boyfriend Found Guilty of Cal State Fullerton 1994 Murder
12
NBC Los Angeles. Man Convicted in Girlfriend’s Cold Case Murder
13
Orange County Register. Ex-Boyfriend Gets 26 Years to Life After Admitting to 1994 Placentia Murder of Cathy Torrez
14
Orange County Register. Man Pleads Guilty to Involuntary Manslaughter in 1994 Placentia Killing
15
Orange County Register. Man Who Helped His Brother Cover Up 1994 Placentia Murder Sentenced to Probation
16
Orange County Register. Parole Denied for Killer of Cal State Fullerton Student Cathy Torrez