Dec. 4—A District Court judge sentenced a Velarde resident to life in prison Monday for killing a man in a small community north of Española three years ago.

Timothy Lopez, 56, was convicted by a jury in October of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Thomas "Derick" Velarde outside an Alcalde gas station on Thanksgiving Day 2020.

Family members of the 58-year-old victim shared details of Velarde's life during the hearing, expressing gratitude for Lopez's conviction.

A brother-in-law of Velarde, Brian Martinez, told the court their community "deserves justice."

"Thanksgiving used to be my wife's and our family's favorite holiday, and for the rest of our lives it will never be the same," he said, adding the family experienced "mental anguish" for years after the killing "knowing our brother's murderer was in public operating his business."

Lopez is the owner of Wicked Kreations Winery, a small business he has operated out of his residence in Velarde, a Rio Arriba County community located between Taos and Española.

Lopez appeared during the sentencing hearing wearing a striped jumpsuit from the Rio Arriba County jail, where he has been detained since he was convicted by a jury in October.

Although Lopez's parents and a friend spoke in defense of his character, the defendant did not address the court during the hearing.

District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said the court was not convinced the state's mandatory sentence for first-degree murder — life imprisonment — should be mitigated in the case.

The jury had rejected Lopez's arguments the shooting was in self-defense, Marlowe Sommer said.

Prosecutors wrote in a motion the men had been feuding over a woman.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, a witness told police Lopez had confronted Velarde at a gas station in Alcalde, drawing a handgun, banging on Velarde's car window and telling him to face Lopez "like a man."

Lopez told officers afterward he shot Velarde in the head after a struggle. He then entered the gas station and told people there to call the police.

The judge noted Lopez had earned several degrees, served in the military and worked for years at Los Alamos National Laboratory, adding "it's too bad that the age-old issue of infidelity got the best of you and it preoccupied your life."

Lopez's attorneys, Michael Jones and John Day, have said they plan to appeal the conviction.