The long-delayed trial of a man accused of killing a 65-year-old Aurora woman in 2007 is scheduled for this summer, according to court records. Daniel Jesus Lopez, 31, is scheduled to go on trial in Arapahoe County District Court starting in August. The trial is expected to last fewer than 10 days.
Lopez, who has been in jail since his 2009 arrest, is scheduled to appear in court for a hearing April 16.
Trials for Lopez were previously scheduled in 2010 and 2011, but each time the trial was delayed. In June 2011, Lopez’s lawyer asked for an indefinite delay because Lopez recently suffered a seizure and has since had trouble understanding the court precedings.
In April 2010 Lopez pleaded not guilty to a first-degree murder charge and burglary stemming from the February 2007 slaying of Yong Soon Kirk at her north Aurora apartment. He was also charged with sexual assault, but a judge ruled in 2009 there was not enough evidence for him to stand trial on that charge, according to court records.
Officers found Kirk’s body Feb. 16, 2007, in her apartment in the 1000 block of Dayton Street after neighbors complained of a strong odor coming from the apartment. In the following days, police revealed she had been beaten to death.
In the days and weeks after Kirk’s death, police said they had no information about possible suspects.
After Lopez’s 2009 arrest, police credited a 2007 law requiring convicted felons to submit a DNA sample with breaking the case.
Lopez submitted a DNA sample to authorities after pleading guilty to felony drug charges stemming from an arrest in Denver in 2008.
The DNA sample was added to the national DNA database — called the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS — and in January 2009 police in Aurora learned that Lopez’s DNA matched samples collected at the Kirk crime scene, police said.
Officers from the Denver-area Fugitive Location and Apprehension Group arrested Lopez on Feb. 19, 2009. Police said they are not sure how, or if, Lopez knew Kirk, who lived alone and didn’t have any family in the area.
Following Lopez’s arrest, State Rep. Steve King, R-Grand Junction, said the arrest was exactly what he had in mind when he pushed the legislation requiring felons to submit a DNA sample.
Lawmakers in 2009 passed legislation requiring anyone arrested on a felony charge, not just those convicted, to submit a DNA sample. That legislation met stiff resistance from civil liberties advocates, who said it invaded the privacy of people arrested but not convicted of a crime, but was signed into law in May 2009.
Before his arrest on the murder charge, Lopez had been arrested more than a dozen times in the metro area since 2004, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Most of the Texas native’s arrests were for traffic infractions, according to CBI. Before his arrest on the murder charge, Lopez had never been arrested in Colorado in connection with a violent crime.
Lopez is being held without bond in the Arapahoe County Jail.
Reach reporter Brandon Johansson at 720-449-9040 or bjohansson@aurorasentinel.com