Left: Javier Lopez (Pinal County Sheriff”s Office). Right: Christina Lopez (San Tan Mountain View).

An Arizona man will spend the rest of his life in prison for the murder of his estranged wife whom he stabbed more than 40 times in front of their son.

Javier Lopez, 50, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the death of 43-year-old Christina Lopez and was sentenced Friday to life behind bars. According to the Pinal County Attorney’s Office, the defendant on April 11, 2024, stabbed the victim to death in front of their teenage son.

The teen heard a commotion and asked his father if he had hurt his mother.

Police responded to the home and found the victim dead in a pool of blood. Javier Lopez was arrested a short time later.

“This was a calculated, premeditated act of murder that robbed a mother of her life and young children of their mother,” County Attorney Brad Miller said in a press release. “Domestic violence is a scourge on our communities, and my office will continue to pursue the strongest penalties available under the law for those who commit such heinous crimes. These children will grow up without their mother’s love and comfort as they go through their lives.”

As their marriage was falling apart, the husband and wife began fighting over the custody of their three children. On the day of the murder, Javier Lopez drove over to his wife’s home with their son. He asked the son to stay in the car while he went inside to talk to his wife to see if she was dating another man.

When Christina Lopez confirmed to her husband that she was seeing someone else, he became enraged and repeatedly stabbed her.

“He couldn’t take it because he knew he would never get her back,” her mother Priscilla Miller told local Fox affiliate KSAZ.

Miller told the TV station that the “heartbreak is unbearable.”

“It’s not supposed to be this way, at all,” she said.