Accused Tells How He Killed His Grandfather

Michael Mario Lopez testified Monday that he was fighting with his grandfather the day he killed the 63-year-old man with a hatchet.

Lopez, 21, is accused of murder in the Jan. 4 slaying of Bruce Barnett Corey of Lemon Grove. Lopez’s attorney maintains that the killing was an act of passion exacerbated because Lopez was drunk.

Lopez testified that he had been drinking heavily before deciding to visit his grandfather to apologize for stealing some of his grandmother’s jewelry.

After making his apology, his grandfather made no comment, but later struck him on the back of the head, Lopez said.

A fight ensued, and Lopez said he tried to escape from the garage, where the scuffle was taking place.

“I remember picking something up and swinging,” he said.

After taking the stand on his own behalf, Lopez appeared confused at several points during the direct examination by his attorney, Victor Eriksen.

Lopez was unable to say how many times he struck his grandfather, or how long it took for Corey to collapse.

Lopez testified that he tore open the man’s shirt “to see if he was still alive.” But, when he determined that his grandfather was dead, he covered the body with a rug and left.

After changing blood-stained clothes at his father’s Lemon Grove house, Lopez testified, he went to his sister’s home and took her and her boyfriend out for pizza, using a credit card he had stolen from his girlfriend earlier in the day.

The prosecution rested its case Monday morning after, about three days of testimony. One of the first witnesses in the defense phase of the trial was the defendant’s father, Manny Lopez, a former San Diego police sergeant who became famous when his role as supervisor of the department’s Border Area Robbery Force was documented in Joseph Wambaugh’s book, “Lines and Shadows.”

The elder Lopez, who retired from the police force in 1979, testified that his son “was an alcoholic” who “would drink anything he could get his hands on.”

Lopez said his son was the favorite grandson of the victim, and that they often went fishing together.

Michael Lopez is expected to undergo cross-examination today by Deputy District Atty. Robert Madruga. Testimony and final arguments are expected to be made today, with jury deliberations beginning Wednesday.