An Arizona man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for what prosecutors described as a “calculated, premeditated act of murder” that left three children without their mother.

Javier Lopez, of Florence, was sentenced this week to natural life in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree premeditated murder in the 2024 killing of his estranged wife, Christina Lopez. According to prosecutors, Lopez stabbed her 43 times inside their home last August while one of their children, a teenage son, sat in the car outside waiting for him.

The violence unfolded on August 12, 2024. According to investigators, Lopez’s teenage son heard his mother’s screams and cries from inside the house. He later asked his father directly if he had hurt her.

Prosecutors said Lopez attacked Christina Lopez in a rage that bore the marks of planning rather than impulse. The brutality of the crime shocked the Florence community. Lopez was arrested that same day and has been held in custody ever since.

“Domestic violence is a scourge on our communities,” Miller said, stressing that his office would continue to pursue the maximum penalties possible in such cases. The decision to accept Lopez’s guilty plea and sentence him to life without the possibility of parole ensures, Miller said, that Christina Lopez’s children “will never have to relive this trauma at another trial or parole hearing.”

The family has not spoken publicly since the sentencing, but her death has been invoked by local advocates as an example of the devastating consequences when abuse goes unchecked.

Arizona has one of the higher rates of domestic violence in the country, according to state data, and advocates note that women remain most at risk when leaving or separating from a partner — the very situation Christina Lopez was in. Her killing, prosecutors argue, was not only an attack on her but also on the fragile sense of safety her children once had in their own home.