A 43-year-old man pleaded not guilty to murder on Wednesday, March 26, after a woman he had been dating was found stabbed to death in her Fontana apartment and investigators detected a bloody shoeprint at her residence.
Luis Chavira, 43, had a weapon on him and was wearing bloody clothing when Fontana police arrested him at Cottonwood Avenue and Frederick Street in Moreno Valley on March 21, about eight hours after a roommate discovered the body of Rachelle Lopez, 38, according to Officer Daniel Romero, a Fontana police spokesman.
“He said, ‘You got me,’ ” Romero said.
Officers who went to Lopez’s home at the Orchards apartments at about 3 a.m. found Lopez in her bedroom and said she had been stabbed several times, Romero said.
Lopez worked at an office there and Chavira worked there as a handyman, Romero said. They dated “off and on,” Romero said.
Chavira served 16 years in state prison after being convicted of armed robbery, Romero said.
Chavira is due back in court on April 1. He is being held at West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga in lieu of $1.1 million bail.