San Diego

The attorney for a retired San Diego police officer’s son who is charged with murdering his grandfather with a hatchet conceded in court that the young man committed the killing.

“The only issue in this case is whether it’s murder or manslaughter,” said attorney Victor Eriksen, who represents Michael Lopez, 22, of Lemon Grove.

Lopez is the son of Manny Lopez, a former San Diego Police sergeant who is now a private security consultant and was a leading character in Joseph Wambaugh’s book “Lines and Shadows,” which detailed the operations of a now-defunct undercover police unit aimed at fighting crime along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The victim was Michael Lopez’s maternal grandfather, Bruce Corey, 63, of Lemon Grove, who was found dead in his garage by his wife Jan. 4.

Eriksen told San Diego Superior Court jurors in his opening statement that Lopez was intoxicated when he went to his grandfather’s home that day.

Lopez erroneously believed that his grandfather knew he had stolen jewelry from his grandmother weeks earlier, Eriksen said. Lopez told Corey about the theft and “expected a tongue-lashing,” which didn’t occur.

Instead, his grandfather needed help in moving a gate to his garage and asked Lopez to help him, the attorney said.

At one point, the gate slipped and knocked Lopez to the ground, and Lopez “thought his grandfather was attacking him,” Eriksen said. “He freaked out. He snapped. He reached over to the workbench and grabbed what was there. It was a hatchet. In a crazed frenzy, he kept hitting and hitting.” Corey was struck 30 times.