Student’s Killer Given Sentence of 25 Years to Life
Five years after Taft High School football player LaMoun Thames was fatally stabbed at a Woodland Hills bus stop, a judge on Wednesday sentenced his killer to the maximum term of 25 years to life in state prison.
“I have nothing left but a memory,†Thames’ mother, Ora “Denise†Rogers, told convicted murderer Oscar Lopez in an emotional confrontation in a Van Nuys courtroom.
“You’re getting off easy,†she told Lopez, “because you have a life.â€
Lopez, 22, maintained that he is innocent.
“I apologize, but it wasn’t me. I’m going to have to pay for something I didn’t do. I’ll never see my mother.â€
But Thames’ survivors said Lopez’s loss paled in comparison to theirs.
“He wasn’t a thug, he wasn’t a gang member, he was a good kid who wanted to live,†Shanise Anderson, Thames’ sister, told Lopez. “She can visit you in jail. We have to visit him in the cemetery.â€
Before Lopez serves the sentence imposed by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Wiatt for first-degree murder, he must first serve at least 22 years for a series of armed robberies.
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