Left: Javier Lopez (Pinal County Sheriff”s Office). Right: Christina Lopez (San Tan Mountain View).

A man from Arizona has been sentenced to life imprisonment for killing his estranged wife by stabbing her over 40 times in the presence of their son.

The 50-year-old Javier Lopez admitted to first-degree murder charges related to the death of 43-year-old Christina Lopez. The sentencing occurred on Friday, securing his life term in prison. According to information from the Pinal County Attorney’s Office, the tragic incident happened on April 11, 2024, when Lopez fatally stabbed his wife while their teenage son witnessed the attack.

The teen heard a commotion and asked his father if he had hurt his mother.

Police responded to the home and found the victim dead in a pool of blood. Javier Lopez was arrested a short time later.

“This was a deliberate and planned murder that took a mother away from her children,” stated County Attorney Brad Miller in a press release. “Domestic violence severely impacts our communities, and we are committed to pursuing the harshest legal penalties for such atrocious acts. These children now face growing up without their mother’s care and affection.”

As the couple’s marriage deteriorated, disputes arose over the custody of their three children. On the day of the murder, Javier Lopez visited his wife’s house with their son. He told his son to wait in the car while he went inside to speak with his wife about whether she was seeing someone else.

When Christina Lopez confirmed to her husband that she was seeing someone else, he became enraged and repeatedly stabbed her.

“He couldn’t take it because he knew he would never get her back,” her mother Priscilla Miller told local Fox affiliate KSAZ.

Miller told the TV station that the “heartbreak is unbearable.”

“It’s not supposed to be this way, at all,” she said.