Teacher Sentenced in Lover’s Murder

A high school Spanish teacher who fatally stabbed his lover, a former class aide, was sentenced to 26 years to life in prison Wednesday by a judge who chided Long Beach school officials for hiring him despite his conviction for beating a previous girlfriend.

Pedro Tepoz-Leon, 35, who coached girls soccer and taught Spanish at Woodrow Wilson High before his arrest in October 2002, was given the maximum sentence for first-degree murder by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Gary J. Ferrari.

About the victim, Mayra Mora Lopez, 19, the judge said: “This poor little girl didn’t have a chance.... The school district doesn’t seem to care who they hire and who they retain as teachers.”

During the trial, Tepoz-Leon pleaded not guilty but admitted having stabbed Lopez, alleging that she had stabbed him first during a heated argument. He also admitted that he had lied in his 1992 job application to the Long Beach Unified School District for a teacher’s aide position: He told the district that he had been sentenced to two years probation, not three years, on a misdemeanor conviction for beating his girlfriend.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lesley Klein raised the issue of the application letter in court to impeach the teacher’s credibility -- he was on probation when he sought the district position and knew he would not be hired if the district were aware of that.

The district, the state’s third largest, said in a statement Wednesday that a civil lawsuit by the victim’s family against the district and others would reveal details that would show that the district and school officials had acted appropriately.

The district has stated that it had limited information about the teacher’s record and noted that the state teacher credentialing board had done a background check on Tepoz-Leon and issued him a credential.

The credentialing commission has said that a misdemeanor conviction would not preclude the issuing of a certificate but would not elaborate.

Tepoz-Leon was an advisor to the high school Spanish club, of which Lopez was a member, and she assisted as a teacher’s aide in his classroom. They became involved in late 2001.

In July 2002, a teacher and a friend of Lopez took her to the Long Beach police after she told them that Tepoz-Leon had beaten her on the head. Police took photographs, but, Klein said, the girl would not identify her attacker nor press charges.

Tepoz-Leon testified that the school’s principal had spoken to him about the incident and that a letter had been put in his personnel file, but that he had not been disciplined before the Oct. 24, 2002, murder of Lopez.

She was strangled, beaten and stabbed five times in the throat in the couple’s apartment. Tepoz-Leon fled but later was arrested.

At the time of his arrest, he sought police help for superficial throat wounds. Klein said testimony by an expert suggested that the wounds, for which Leon blamed Lopez, probably had been self-inflicted.

In an eerie similarity, Leon’s former girlfriend testified that he had pummeled her unconscious, choked her and cut his own wrist. About two years after that incident, after serving 90 days in jail, Tepoz-Leon applied to the district.