ORLANDO, Fla. — Cristian Contreras, 26, walked out of jail on Wednesday after a jury acquitted him of second-degree murder in the death of 26-year-old Luis Lopez.
He was found guilty of trespassing and sentenced to 60 days, but because he’d been behind bars since February, he was released earlier in the afternoon.
Lopez’s family, who live in Mexico and don’t speak English, told exclusively to Channel 9 they feel like the outcome failed their loved one.
“We cannot fathom that he is no longer here,” said Araceli Lopez-Lopez, Luis Lopez’s sister. “It’s very difficult; he did not deserve to die this way.”
Deputies were called to Lopez’s Pine Castle home in February. Body camera video shows Lopez holding Contreras in a headlock; deputies said they believed Lopez had a knife and opened fire, killing him, not realizing he lived there.
The sheriff’s office later said that no knife was found on the scene.
Weeks later, deputies arrested Contreras, and the state charged him with second-degree murder even though he didn’t pull the trigger. On Wednesday, jurors returned their decision: “We find him not guilty.”
Araceli said she had never heard of Contreras before the night her brother was killed and described the months since as devastating. “They took his life, and it’s not fair. It’s not fair that those responsible are just free,” she said.
Investigators said the confrontation between the two men, who were coworkers, started as an argument over paying for alcohol. When deputies arrived, the encounter with Lopez escalated quickly, ending with the gunfire that took his life.
Contreras’s trespassing sentence was satisfied by the time he had already served, which is why he was able to walk free immediately after the trial.
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