LOS ANGELES — A man serving 85 years to life in prison for fatally stabbing his wife and stuffing her body into a closet in their North Hollywood apartment was killed in a Kern County prison during an attack involving three fellow inmates, state officials said Tuesday.
Nick Vedol Lopez, 55, was attacked around 7:40 p.m. Sunday at North Kern State Prison in Kern County, according to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Prison guards halted the attack with the use of pepper spray, but Lopez was pronounced dead shortly before 9 p.m., officials said. Three inmate- fashioned weapons were found at the scene, according corrections officials.
The three suspects in the attack — Jose Gonzalez, 48, Eric Servin, 37, and Alfred R. Rodriguez, 37 — were placed in restricted housing pending the outcome of an investigation.
Gonzalez is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder in Los Angeles County, while Servin is serving life with the possibility of parole for second-degree murder, also out of Los Angeles County.
Rodriguez was sentenced in San Bernardino County to life with the possibility of parole for second-degree murder.
Lopez was convicted of first-degree murder for the February 2019 slaying of his wife, Tanya, who was stabbed 32 times.
According to an appeal court ruling in the case, Lopez called 911 from his wife’s cell phone at 1:51 a.m. Feb. 23, 2019, and told the dispatcher that someone had been stabbed at the home. Police found the woman’s naked body upside down in a bedroom closet, and escorted the woman’s three grandchildren outside.
Lopez was arrested later that day after an off-duty sheriff’s deputy called 911 upon seeing Lopez walking on an on-ramp of the Foothill (210) Freeway in Azusa with blood covering his hands and clothing, according to the appeals court.
DNA testing done on blood recovered from knives found in the bedroom determined that it contained DNA from the defendant and the victim.
Lopez was sentenced in August 2022 to 85 years to life in state prison.
