LIHUE — An Anahola man was sentenced on Thursday to five years in jail for violating the terms of his probation by committing a litany of crimes, among them choking a woman, assaulting a police officer and neglecting to register as a sex offender.
Beau Lopez, 33, signed a plea deal in May that resolved seven separate cases pending against him. In exchange for his no-contest plea, prosecutors agreed to drop one misdemeanor, convert two felony charges to misdemeanors, and recommend that the judge give Lopez a five-year sentence instead of the decades he could have spent in jail if convicted at trial.
Even with the plea bargain, Lopez still faced three class C felonies, each of which potentially carried extended 10-year jail terms, and another three misdemeanors. But the new charges were only half of the problem for Lopez.
Last year, when prosecutors charged him with abuse of a family or household member for choking a woman he was living with, Lopez was about seven months into a five-year probation sentence he was given after pleading guilty to seven felonies in four different cases he had picked up over the previous five years.
Among the list of offenses Lopez pleaded guilty to was one count of abuse of a family or household member, a crime he had been charged with in 2013 for, among other things, strangling his former girlfriend, who, at the time, was pregnant with his son, according to a letter prosecutors attached to the plea deal Lopez signed in January 2018.
In the letter, the prosecuting attorney handling the case said Lopez endangered the life of the woman carrying his unborn child “by nearly causing multiple accidents” while driving down the road high on methamphetamine. Shortly after choking the woman, the prosecutor’s letter said, Lopez accidentally hit her in the stomach and, later that evening, forced her to have sex against her will.
The plea bargain resolved two other 2013 cases against Lopez that stemmed from incidents that occurred a few months later. Just over two weeks after the birth of his son, prosecutors said Lopez broke into the home of the newborn’s mother, stealing her iPhone and some money and, four days later, went back to the house, “breaking a baby’s crib, breaking a telephone, and destroying a bible.”
About a week later, Lopez broke into the home again, ruined more household items and physically assaulted his former girlfriend, according to the prosecutor’s letter, which concludes a summary of those incidents by saying police officers later observed red marks on the woman’s neck.
Lopez started beating and threatening another woman a few years later, according to court documents in the numerous felony cases he would accumulate over the next several years, many of which were resolved with his January 2018 plea deal and subsequent sentence of five years probation, the conditions of which he promptly and repeatedly violated.
In the 10 months following the date he started probation on April 19, 2018, Lopez was arrested three times. He has been in police custody since Feb. 21, when police picked him up on an outstanding warrant for failing to comply with sex-offender-registration requirements.
The five-year term of incarceration Lopez was sentenced to on Thursday encompassed penalties for six new crimes and probation violations in four cases.
His list of offenses carried a combined total of nearly 40 years worth of jail time, even without the charges that had been dismissed or reduced in the plea bargain, and prosecutors had the option to seek at least another 15 years under Hawaii statutes that allow extended terms of imprisonment for repeat offenders of violent crimes.
But like most defendants convicted on multiple counts, Lopez’s jail sentences are set to run concurrently. In other words, despite being sentenced to seven, five-year terms — three for failing to register as a sex offender, plus four probation violations — and two, one-year terms for misdemeanor offenses, Lopez will be out in five years or less, depending on how the parole board handles his case.
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Caleb Loehrer, staff writer, can be reached at 245-0441 or cloehrer@thegardenisland.com.
Do you think that slap on his wrist stung? I do not.
These types on lenient sentences are why we have a crime issue on Kauai. Why was this violent predator given probation after CHOKING and RAPING the mother of his child? Only to commit violent crimes again and again. We, the taxpayers of Kauai, are paying for the police time and multiple trials to put this loser away for 5 years or less? Law enforcement and the courts need to get serious with violent repeat offenders. As a woman and a mother I’m outraged this career criminal is given any type of leniency. Enough is enough! To TGI: “forcing her to have sex against her will” is RAPE! Get with it Kauai, we should all be outraged!! This guy should locked up for a long time somewhere far away.
Well he’s been granted parole as of 1/12/21.
People like this have it easy in jail:/prison… it’s a vacation , they like it there so much cause they have to do nothing at all can watch tv look at porn mags go outside etc etc … so they get out and strangle someone again cause they like being in jail. More drugs in there for them too. Free ride. They make it too easy to be a loser! I’m afraid for my safety when I got the call he was granted parole 🥺 this guy is no joke I’ve seen the damage he’s done to his prior girlfriend. For absolutely no reason but the truth being he needs medication n therapy due to mental illness of some sort. Most of these people need mental help not prison but they get used to being tossed aside and they feel neglected from the system. Which they are very much so. I can honestly say that I’ve witnessed beau being very funny and nice person and loving , I’ve also witnessed to switch over.. it’s immediate! There’s no time to know it’s coming it just flips him over and he becomes angry for no appear to reason accept what his mind is making up.. so I have to disagree with being locked up far away for a long time. Give Kauai’s people some aloha and live and care for them how we know how and should. Maybe we would see a change. You get what you put out correct? Well slap gets a slap. Unconditional love let’s you show others how they should be and maybe they can learn some self love because we are all worth it. So yes get with it Kauai and step up for our loved ones and the ones we don’t know so well. This is Kauai none of us come up unless we all work together and lend a helpful hand. Slaps don’t work obviously.. or god would just slap us all. The answer is unconditional love! Try it some time. It might just change a person to love instead of choke . Embrace each other with love not hate. I hope beau comes home and he is shown love and respect. We all fuck up. We’re human. Pay it forward goes a long way. I know from my own experience. Be positive , love one another and have a safe happy beautiful day my friend. Cause you deserve it and you are worth it. 100 💯 %
ALOHA ❤️