A man from Pennsylvania, charged with fatally stabbing his former girlfriend in a jealous rage and later dismissing the act as a “joke,” is set to serve a lengthy prison sentence.

Samuel Lopez-Ordones, aged 34, admitted to third-degree murder in the killing of 27-year-old Daniela Allende, according to the Reading Eagle. He received a sentence of 20 to 40 years in state prison, which is the harshest penalty available for this offense.

Initially, Lopez-Ordones faced charges including first-degree murder and aggravated assault, as well as other offenses, as per court records accessed by Law&Crime. However, these charges were dropped as part of a plea agreement.

Documents from the court, as reported by a local news outlet, revealed that Lopez-Ordones and Allende had been together for around a decade before she ended the relationship in January 2025, instructing him to leave their shared home on Amity Street, Reading, where they lived with their children and her family.

Despite moving out, Lopez-Ordones returned.

In the week following his departure, he reportedly became increasingly jealous, attaching a GPS device to Allende’s car and disputing with her over the custody of their children. On January 29, 2025, tracking her whereabouts, he followed her to a restaurant parking lot, where he allegedly saw her accompanied by another man.

When she returned home about 45 minutes later, Lopez-Ordones, again, followed, authorities said. He confronted her, saying, “Who was that guy?” prompting her to tell him to “just stop.”

Lopez-Ordones told police he saw a knife near him, picked it up, and stabbed Allende “as a joke,” not realizing until afterward that he had stabbed her deeply in her chest, per the Reading Eagle. He proceeded to walk up the stairs of the home and tell the victim’s sister that he “did something bad and hurt your sister.”

The sister went downstairs to find Allende lying in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor, authorities recounted. She called 911, and Allende’s father and brother held the suspect down on the home’s sofa until police arrived.

Lopez-Ordones has been locked up in the Berks County Correctional Facility since Jan. 30, 2025. Online court records do not yet reflect his plea and sentencing.

An obituary for Allende written in Spanish remembers her as “a person that made her own way in the world.”

“She had a laid-back personality, always laughing, joking, and not worrying about the little things,” it added. “For Daniela, life should be lived with joy and humor.”