Transvestite who butchered cab driver smirks at victim's family, claims victimhood after getting off the hook for murder

A hulking transvestite butchered a beloved Portland taxi driver in an unprovoked Easter Sunday attack last year.

Despite refusing to take responsibility for the bloodletting and claiming victimhood, Moses Lopez managed to dodge a heftier sentence this week because Mike Schmidt, Multnomah County's leftist district attorney, approved a plea deal downgrading his murder charge to manslaughter.

What's the background?

Lopez went partying in downtown Portland on April 9, just days after being arrested and charged with menacing two employees of a Coos County Bi-Mart, trespassing, and weapons charges. When the fun came to an end, the LGBT activist called 911 and requested a ride home. The Oregonian reported that the operator told the transvestite to instead call a cab.

Radio Cab driver Reese Lawhon, 43, obliged the transvestite, picking him up outside a donut shop. While there was initially some suggestion that the dispatcher had entered the wrong address, KGB-TV indicated Lopez had fouled up the instructions. Despite the miscommunication, Lawhon, a Texan with the company for 10 years, noticed the error, turned around under a highway overpass, and began to correct course.

Blaze News previously reported that Darin Campbell, a spokesman for the cab company, noted on the basis of footage taken inside the cab that when Lawhon "went to put the new address in his GPS, the passenger stabbed him in the neck."

KATU-TV reported that police were called at 6:41 p.m. to the scene of a cab stopped in the middle of traffic at the intersection of Southeast Washington Street and Southeast Water Avenue. Lawhon was found inside, slouched over the steering wheel with his neck cut open. Lopez was apprehended nearby shortly thereafter, covered in the victim's blood.

First responders reportedly saw Lopez "drop a pair of brass knuckles with an attached blade on the ground."

Ginger Lawhon, the victim's mother, was the last person to speak to him, reported KATU.

"He returned the call saying he was working and would call later to visit. He never did," said Ginger Lawhon. "The world itself has been transformed and made deficient."

Radio Cab noted in a statement upon learning of learning of the grisly slaying that Lawhon had been a "great person who came to work hoping to have a great Easter Sunday shift."

An unrepentant killer

Lopez was initially charged with second-degree murder and the unlawful use of a weapon. He also faced charges in a separate case for threatening two Bi-Mart employees, for which he skipped out on the first court date.

Under the sweetheart plea deal Multnomah County DA Mike Schmidt approved, Lopez pleaded guilty to charges of first-degree manslaughter and the unlawful use of a weapon. He also saw his other case dismissed altogether per the terms of the agreement.

The victim's sisters noted in a statement that they accepted the plea deal only so that their elderly parents would be spared from reliving the horror of what Lopez subjected their son to, reported KATU.

"When Moses gets out in 20 years, assuming she's still alive, and I hope she's not, I look forward to testifying against her, whatever senseless crime she commits next, because she will," said Claire Pearce, one of the victim's sisters.

"We tell our kids so many times that monsters aren't under the bed or in the closet, but it's a lie," Pearce told the court Wednesday. "Moses Lopez is a monster and will always be one."

Lopez grinned when Pearce characterized him as a monster, reported the Oregonian.

Lopez attempted to cast himself in court as a victim, complaining that the evening he butchered Lawhon, he had lost his debit card, had to listen to static on the dispatcher's radio, and wasn't taken directly to his desired destination.

Lopez further suggested that he feared for his safety on account of being a transvestite in a predominantly leftist city.

"I ended up in a very scary part of town where I was genuinely afraid," said the killer who traveled around with bladed brass knuckles. "I refuse to apologize for the lack of help that I so desperately needed."

After displacing blame, the killer told Lawhon's grieving family members, "I want you to know that I accept the way that you feel."

"The excuses that were made in the courtroom today for [Lopez's] actions are disgraceful" said Campbell, who underscored that Lawhon would have helped the transvestite if simply asked as opposed to brutally stabbed to death.

"Our opinion is she is a homicidal mentally ill individual who should never be set free ever again," continued Campbell. "The Radio Cab management team that unfortunately had to see the video of the murder of Reese Lawhon are traumatized, I being one of them."

A Multnomah County Circuit Court judge ultimately sentenced Lopez Wednesday to 22 years in state prison.

The DA's office said in a statement, "The DA’s Office thanks PPB Detective Shaye Samora and the officers who assisted with this case. DA's Office staff also acknowledge the victim's family, as well as his friends and colleagues at Radio Cab, and hope that today’s sentencing brings some closure that will allow the healing process to continue."

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