Reputed Hit Man Gets 14 Years in 2 Slayings

A reputed drug ring hit man serving a 43-years-to-life prison term for one murder and an attempted murder has been sentenced to an additional 14 years behind bars for two other slayings.

Roberto Lopez, 36, who pleaded guilty Sept. 11 to two counts of voluntary manslaughter for the October, 1983, machine-gun slayings of a couple, was sentenced Monday by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg.

Lopez will serve the 14-year sentence consecutively with a prison term of 43 years to life that he received last year for murdering one man and attempting to kill a second man in February, 1982.

The district attorney’s office said Lopez must serve about 40 years before being eligible for parole.

Lopez, identified by authorities as a hit man for a large Cuban-Colombian cocaine ring, had been charged with first-degree murder in the 1983 execution-style slayings of Hector Falcon, 26, and his wife, Teresa, 29. But he agreed to plead guilty to the lesser manslaughter charges after jurors deadlocked nine to three to acquit him on Aug. 31 of the murder counts.

The Falcons’ bullet-riddled bodies were discovered in a car parked near a Hollywood cemetery.