A jury handed down multiple guilty verdicts in the case against 29-year-old Julio Lopezleon, who was accused of violently sexually assaulting his wife over the course of four days in 2013. He was convicted on two counts of first-degree sexual assault, second-degree assault, four counts of fourth-degree assault and two counts of tampering with a witness.
Anchorage District Attorney Clint Campion announced the jury’s decision in a statement on Tuesday. He said Lopezleon’s conviction was decided after 25 days of trial and “extensive pretrial litigation.”
Court records state the ongoing assault began on March 25, 2013. Police responded to a report of a domestic violence assault on March 28, 2013, and found Lopezleon’s wife hiding at a relative’s home, covered in bruises, according to an affidavit from assistant District Attorney Andrew Grannik. When police spoke with her about the assault, she said Lopezleon began hurting her when he found out her ex-boyfriend had contacted her.
“These assaults continued on and off for the next four days,” Grannik wrote. “Lopezleon was punching and kicking her all over her body. On March 27, 2013, he held a gun to her waist and threatened to kill her. She thought that she was going to die.”
According to Campion, Lopezleon also attempted to subvert the investigation by sending his wife to Mexico to avoid a subpoena.
“The victim returned to Alaska in 2016 and testified at trial,” Campion said in a statement.
Lopezleon faced additional charges of first-degree sexual assault, coercion and third-degree assault, but the jury found him not guilty on those three counts, Campion explained.
Lopezleon faces between 26 and 99 years in prison “because the jury found that his offenses were crimes of domestic violence,” Campion wrote.
He added that Lopezleon is in custody and will not be released prior to his sentencing, which is scheduled for April 23.
The post Anchorage man convicted of sexually assaulting his wife appeared first on KTVA 11.
