California man charged with homicide of 11-year-old son will get jail for sexually exploiting woman

A federal decide on Monday sentenced a father, who faces homicide and little one abuse fees within the 2020 loss of life of his 11-year-old son, to fifteen years in jail for sexually exploiting a woman at his California residence within the months earlier than the boy disappeared in Placerville.

U.S. District Choose William B. Shubb sentenced 38-year-old Jordan Thomas Piper to the required minimal sentence of 15 years in jail, which was really useful by each his protection lawyer and the federal prosecutor. However they disagreed on how lengthy his parole needs to be.

Piper has been in custody with out bail since Feb. 4, 2021, when he and his spouse have been arrested in reference to the loss of life of his son, Roman Lopez. Police stated Roman’s physique was present in a storage bin within the basement of the couple’s Placerville residence.

In March, Piper pleaded guilty in federal court to sexual exploitation of a child in reference to acts that occurred from Oct. 3, 2019, by Jan. 9, 2020, in Tuolumne and El Dorado counties.

Because the Placerville Police Division investigated the loss of life of his son, regulation enforcement seized a digital digicam and different digital units. Investigators searched cellphones and located proof that Piper secretly recorded movies of the underage woman.

Piper, carrying an orange jail inmate jumpsuit, appeared Monday morning in federal court docket in Sacramento. He spoke solely briefly to inform the decide he didn’t want to converse in court docket earlier than he was sentenced.

Assistant U.S. Lawyer Roger Yang requested for Piper to serve 15 years on parole as soon as he’s launched from jail. On Monday, Yang informed the decide that Piper has stated he was in “a spiraling household scenario” that led to him secretly recording video of the woman, and he’s dealing with fees within the pending El Dorado County homicide case.

Tasha Paris Chalfant, Piper’s lawyer, requested the court docket for 5 years of parole for her shopper. In a sentencing suggestion filed in court docket, Chalfant stated Piper has no historical past of prior intercourse offenses and has taken full accountability for secretly recording the woman on video.

“Mr. Piper made horrible selections associated to this case. He positioned a recording gadget in a rest room at his residence, and he has nice regret for violating the privateness of all those that used the room,” Chalfant wrote within the court docket doc. “He additionally acknowledges he behaved in an inappropriate method with the minor sufferer through textual content messages.”

Shubb ordered Piper to serve 15 years in jail for little one sexual exploitation and seven ½ years on parole.

Sexually express textual content messages

Investigators searched cellphones and located proof that Piper secretly recorded movies of the underage woman, in line with a filed affidavit from the FBI.

The FBI obtained a search warrant for Piper’s digital units and located a video on a GoPro digicam. The video appeared to have been recorded on Oct. 19, 2019, and it confirmed Piper eradicating the digicam from behind a wall outlet within the toilet of a rented residence in Groveland.

The FBI stated investigators discovered many movies that depicted the woman utilizing the toilet and bathing. The woman was residing in Piper’s Groveland residence on the time.

Piper despatched the woman sexually express textual content messages from Dec. 16 to Dec. 24 of 2019, “regarding a sexual ‘Christmas present,’” and providing her $250 to make use of it, in line with a filed FBI affidavit.

On Piper’s Samsung cellphone, investigators discovered screenshots from the secretly recorded movies of the woman — greater than 430 express photographs of the woman, the FBI stated. Different movies discovered, dated Oct. 4 and Oct. 5, 2019, have been of the woman utilizing the toilet and bathing different youngsters.

The protection lawyer informed the court docket that her shopper “labored extraordinarily lengthy hours” in his profession as a lineman, which required frequent absences from his household. Piper was elevating his son by himself, Chalfant stated, then his household expanded after marrying his spouse, Lindsay Marie Piper.

Piper was the only supply of revenue for his household, which included his spouse, son, 4 stepchildren and three foster youngsters, in line with Chalfant. His spouse was a stay-at-home mother. The protection lawyer stated her shopper “felt great monetary and private stress, was working in depth hours, was utilizing nonprescribed drugs and consuming alcohol and utilizing different substances as quickly as he obtained residence from work every night time.”

“He fully misplaced himself in addition to his ethical compass, and he has great regret and disgrace for his conduct on this case,” Chalfant wrote within the sentencing suggestion. “Mr. Piper is reflective and devoted to residing an honorable life once more.”

Along with jail and parole sentences, Shubb additionally ordered Piper to register with authorities as a convicted intercourse offender and supply a DNA pattern when ordered by a probation officer.

El Dorado County homicide case

Piper nonetheless faces an unsure destiny in El Dorado County, the place native prosecutors accuse of him of homicide in his son’s loss of life.

Roman was reported missing from his home Jan. 11, 2020. Officers later revealed that “investigators positioned Roman deceased inside a storage bin in the basement” of Piper’s rented Placerville home hours after the boy was reported lacking.

About 13 months after Roman was discovered useless, Piper and Roman’s stepmother were arrested. The Pipers were charged with second-degree murder and child abuse prone to trigger nice bodily harm or loss of life and inflicting merciless and excessive ache for revenge, extortion or sadistic goal, in line with a prison grievance filed in El Dorado Superior Courtroom.

Jordan Piper was charged with a further rely of willfully failing to supply meals, clothes, shelter and medical consideration to the boy. His spouse was charged with a separate rely of willfully having “mingled a poison and dangerous substance with meals, drink, medication, and pharmaceutical product and positioned a poison and dangerous substance in a spring, properly, reservoir and public water provide” understanding it might trigger harm. The Pipers pleaded not responsible to these fees.

Final 12 months, Lindsay Piper changed her plea to no contest to the murder charge, the El Dorado County District Lawyer’s Workplace stated. She was sentenced to fifteen years to life in jail. As of Monday, the 41-year-old mom was serving her state jail sentence on the Central California Ladies’s Facility in Madera County.

On Monday, the federal decide requested the prosecutor to inform him extra about Piper’s pending homicide case. Yang stated he has restricted details about the El Dorado County case, however he stated, “primarily, his son was uncovered to extreme ranges of salt and ultimately died.”