Dad, charged with murder in Roman Lopez’s death, is convicted of child sex exploitation

A father who faces murder and child-abuse charges in the death of his 11-year-old son, Roman Lopez, has pleaded guilty to sexually exploiting a girl at his home in the months before the boy disappeared in Placerville.

Jordan Thomas Piper, 37, on Monday was convicted of sexual exploitation of a child in alleged acts that occurred Oct. 3, 2019, through Jan. 9, 2020, in Tuolumne and El Dorado counties, according to an amended criminal complaint filed March 7 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.

The amended complaint includes a criminal forfeiture violation that requires upon conviction for Piper to forfeit all material collected and devices used in the crimes, including a GoPro video camera, a Micro SD digital storage card and his Samsung cell phone.

Piper, wearing an orange jail inmate jumpsuit, appeared Monday morning in federal court in Sacramento. Piper has been in custody without bail since Feb. 4, 2021, when he was arrested in connection with his son’s death.

U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb explained to Piper that pleading guilty would result in a minimum sentence of 15 years up to a maximum 30-year prison sentence. Piper told the judge he understood the consequences of the plea agreement he made with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger Yang told the judge that Piper secretly recorded the victim, an underage girl, collecting about 30 nude videos of her and screenshots from the video. The prosecutor said illicit images were found on Piper’s Samsung phone.

Piper admitted in court Monday that he placed a camera inside a bathroom at a Groveland home he was renting to secretly record the girl and captured the screenshots also found on his phone.

Shubb scheduled Piper to return to his courtroom June 12 for sentencing. Piper then would be returned to El Dorado County, where he continues to await prosecution in his son’s death.

Roman was reported missing from his home Jan. 11, 2020. Officials later revealed that “investigators located Roman deceased inside a storage bin in the basement” of Piper’s rented Placerville home hours after the boy was reported missing.

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Jordan Piper, the father of Roman Lopez, enters a courtroom on Friday, Nov. 19, 2021, in El Dorado Superior Court in Placerville, California. On Monday, March 20, 2023, in federal court in Sacramento, Piper pleaded guilty to child sexual exploitation for acts committed against a girl living with his family.

Videos of girl discovered

As the Placerville Police Department investigated Roman’s death, law enforcement seized a digital camera and other digital devices. Investigators searched cellphones and found evidence that Piper secretly recorded videos of the underage girl, according to a filed affidavit from the FBI.

The FBI obtained a search warrant for Piper’s digital devices and found a video on the GoPro camera. The video appeared to have been recorded on Oct. 19, 2019, and it shows Piper removing the camera from behind a wall outlet in the bathroom of a rented home in Groveland, according to the affidavit.

The FBI said investigators found many videos that depicted the girl using the bathroom and bathing. The girl was living in Piper’s Groveland home at the time, according to the affidavit.

On Piper’s Samsung cellphone, investigators found screenshots from the secretly recorded videos of the girl; more than 430 explicit images of the girl, the FBI said. Other videos found, dating to Oct. 4 and 5, 2019, were of the girl using the bathroom and bathing other children, according to the affidavit.

Piper sent the girl sexually explicit text messages from Dec. 16 through 24, 2019, “concerning a sexual ‘Christmas gift,’” and offering her $250 to use it, according to the affidavit.

In June, more than two years after the boy’s death, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento filed the child sexual exploitation charge against the father.

A missing sign is posted on a telephone pole Monday, Jan. 13, 2020, near the home of Roman Anthony Lopez, an 11-year-old Placerville boy who went missing on Jan. 11, 2020, and was later found dead in the basement of his home on Coloma Street in Placerville.

El Dorado County murder case

Jordan and Lindsay Marie Piper, his wife and Roman’s stepmother, were arrested two years ago in connection with the boy’s death. The Pipers were charged with second-degree murder and child abuse likely to cause great bodily injury or death and causing cruel and extreme pain for revenge, extortion or sadistic purpose, according to a criminal complaint filed in El Dorado Superior Court.

Jordan Piper in February 2021 was charged with an additional count of willfully failing to provide food, clothing, shelter and medical attention to the boy.

Lindsay Piper was charged with a separate count of willfully having “mingled a poison and harmful substance with food, drink, medicine, and pharmaceutical product and placed a poison and harmful substance in a spring, well, reservoir and public water supply” knowing it could cause injury. The Pipers last year pleaded not guilty to those charges.

Last year, Roman’s stepmother changed her plea to no contest to the murder charge, the El Dorado County District Attorney’s Office said. Lindsay Piper, 40, was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. On Monday, Piper was serving her prison sentence at the Central California Women’s Facility in Madera County.