SALT LAKE CITY — After his truck spun out of control, hitting their car and crashing into a fence, a woman and her daughter testified Tuesday that Komasquin Lopez climbed from the wreckage and began to yell.

"He threw himself down to the ground and started saying, 'Sorry, Mami. Sorry, Mami,'" 12-year-old Kimberly Martinez testified.

Lopez's wife was dead in the truck, they later learned — not from the crash but from a single gunshot wound to the head moments before the accident occurred.

Attorneys for the Midvale man accused of shooting his wife in the head as they drove down State Street on Dec. 27, 2013, told jurors Tuesday that Shannon Lopez, high on methamphetamine and distraught that her husband might leave her, took her own life.

"He did not kill his wife," defense attorney Nick Falcone told the two-woman, eight-man jury on the first day of his client's murder trial.

Lopez, 45, had picked up his wife from the store only to discover that she had been using drugs, Falcone said. As they drove, they began to argue.

"Mr. Lopez was upset about the drug use," he said, explaining that Lopez then told his wife he was thinking about leaving her because of her addiction.

That's when defense attorneys say Shannon Lopez, 32, picked up a gun that the couple always kept in the truck. Perhaps she did it just to make a point or maybe she had suicidal intentions, Falcone said. The gun went off, hitting the woman in the side of the head, and the truck slammed into another car and crashed near 7800 S. State.

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Man who told police his wife committed suicide charged with murder

A Midvale man who told police his wife shot herself in a car on State Street has been charged with murder. Komasquin Lopez, 43, was booked into Salt Lake County Jail on Thursday and charged in 3rd District Court with first-degree felony murder.

Prosecutors, however, argued that Komasquin Lopez was a violent man prone to brandishing his gun when he was angry. The couple had been arguing since that morning, documented in a series of profanity-laced text messages, until Lopez's anger toward his wife pushed him to shoot her as they drove.

"The evidence in this case is not going to show you that Shannon committed suicide," prosecutor Joseph Hill told the jury. "The defendant shot Shannon in a fit of rage. An argument started earlier that morning in those text messages … and ignited later that night."

Forensic evidence, from fingerprints on the gun to blood spattered throughout the wrecked truck, was inconclusive, both sides noted.

"This case is about small pieces of the puzzle, that, when put together, show you what happened," said Hill, who described Lopez's love for her children and her concern for a son who has cerebral palsy.

Falcone, however, emphasized the circumstantial nature of the case. The fact that Komasquin Lopez is known to use profanity and that the couple owned guns is not evidence that a crime was committed, he said.

"They were gun people," the defense attorney said. "Just because you have a lot of (guns) doesn't mean you should be accused of a crime."

As she watched Komasquin Lopez shouting from where she was trapped in the wrecked car she had been driving with her daughter, Valri Clavel-Rodriguez testified that she could see a gun lying on the floor inside the open driver's side door of the truck.

"I was praying he wouldn't come back and use that," she said through an interpreter.

Lopez is charged with murder, a first-degree felony, and faces up to life in prison if he is convicted. The trial is scheduled to last through Friday.

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