Butler man sentenced to prison in nonfatal shooting
A Butler man was given a prison sentence Thursday after pleading guilty to an aggravated assault charge filed by Butler police for shooting his roommate last year.
Samuel T. Lopez, 35, was sentenced to serve 36 to 84 months in state prison and ordered to pay $3,000 in restitution to the victim, Jose Rodriguez-Hernandez, who was 32 when he was shot in the face on Feb. 21.
Common Pleas Court Judge Timothy McCune imposed the sentence. A Spanish interpreter translated for Lopez.
At a preliminary hearing in June 2024, Rodriguez-Hernandez said he was living with Lopez for two months at an East Pearl Street residence in Butler and the two had previously worked together installing fences.
On Feb. 21, Rodriguez-Hernandez said he got home from work early and was in his room when Lopez arrived home around 3 or 4 p.m.
“I was eating in my room and I heard the noise of a firearm,” he said.
Rodriguez-Hernandez said Lopez opened the bedroom door and pointed a “cream colored” firearm at him, shooting him once near the right side of his mouth.
The bullet exited the left side of Rodriguez-Hernandez’s neck, reentered his left shoulder and exited his left arm.
“He shot me once, and then he shot the wall,” he said.
According to Rodriguez-Hernandez, Lopez instructed him to go into the bathroom. When Rodriguez-Hernandez saw himself in the mirror, he said there was blood coming from his mouth and neck.
Rodriguez-Hernandez was taken by a friend to Butler Memorial Hospital and later transported to a Pittsburgh Hospital.
He testified he and Lopez had not had any arguments before the shooting.
Butler police said they found a cream-colored Glock 9 mm handgun in a backpack outside the residence, a bullet and a slug on a sidewalk outside of the residence, a bloodstained mop and sheets in a closet, a stained bathroom rug stuffed in a drawer, and a garbage can outside containing a bloodstained comforter, pillow and sheets.
Police said body camera footage another officer took the day of the shooting shows a bullet falling out of Lopez’s pocket as he was going through his pockets on the sidewalk.
Lopez has been held in the county prison without bail since he was arrested in June 2024 in New York.
