When Orange County deputies shot to death a man scuffling with an apparent intruder in his home, prosecutors blamed the intruder for the tragedy and charged him with murder.
A jury didn’t buy it.
After nearly three hours of deliberation, jurors on Wednesday found Christian Duran-Contreras, 26, not guilty of second-degree murder in the death of 26-year-old Jose Luis Lopez. Duran-Contreras was found guilty of trespassing, a misdemeanor.
The case, described as a tragedy of errors, began when the two men, who worked together as roofers, got into an argument Feb. 8 after drinking beer outside a home owned by their boss. Duran-Contreras left but returned, found the house locked and broke in. Lopez, not initially realizing who had entered the home, texted a neighbor to call 911 and then confronted the man.
When deputies arrived, they saw Lopez, who they thought was armed, restraining Duran-Contreras and shot Lopez. They later charged Duran-Contreras with second-degree murder, arguing his attempts to commit burglary led to his co-worker’s death.
But jurors didn’t accept that argument nor that Duran-Contreras committed burglary, which was tied to the murder accusation. They downgraded the burglary charge to trespassing, apparently persuaded by his public defender, who argued Duran-Contreras believed he was allowed to be in the home but was merely locked outside.
Duran-Contreras, dressed in a tan suit, did not take the witness stand and looked on silently as the verdict was read. He was sentenced to time served in jail, meaning he will be freed after spending months behind bars ahead of the trial.
On Wednesday, Duran-Contreras’ public defender Andrew Clark declined to present a case after prosecutors rested theirs. In closing arguments, both Clark and Assistant State Attorney William Jay described the fateful incident between the two men as a tragedy.
Neither was available for an interview following the trial.
“There are a lot of things that could have gone differently that end up with this gentleman not being shot, and it would have been better — obviously better — if those things happened,” Clark told the jury in his closing remarks. “But just because something bad happens doesn’t mean we have to find somebody to punish for it.”
The two men argued over paying a share of the beer the two drank with their friends outside Lopez’s home in Pine Castle. Things got physical when Duran-Contreras shattered a beer bottle, Jay told jurors, to which Lopez responded by pulling out a gun before going back inside the house for the night.
Later, after an Uber ride for Duran-Contreras was canceled, he returned to the home where he was invited to sleep by his boss. Realizing the door was locked, investigators said he broke in using a ladder propped up against the kitchen window.
Orange County deputies Alex Duran and Paul Ortiz responded to the scene and shot Lopez following a 10-second confrontation where they watched him through a window and saw him holding the intruder. They told investigators they believed Lopez, who they thought was the intruder, was holding a knife to Duran-Contreras’ neck.
No weapon was found near Lopez, a detail the Orange County Sheriff’s Office admitted a month later.
“You break into someone’s house in the middle of the night, you can expect a police response, you can expect to get shot yourself,” Jay said. “They could have struggled over this firearm, and either one of them could have been killed. Voluntary intoxication is not a defense; he made the decision to go into this armed man’s home after arguing with him.”
Clark, the public defender, disputed whether Duran-Contreras entered the home with the intent to commit a crime.
He also referred to the prosecution’s mention of a gun, which Jay said was a sign Duran-Contreras was no longer welcome, to be a “red herring.” Lopez’s actions were also questionable, he said, noting just moments before the shooting he put Duran-Contreras in a chokehold as deputies approached the house and didn’t let go as they barked orders for him to drop a knife.
Duran-Contreras “didn’t have the intent to do any crime, he was drunk … he was clearly not there to do anything to anyone,” Clark said.
Lopez, remembered by loved ones as a talented soccer player, was working in the U.S. in construction and was saving up money to purchase an avocado farm with his mother and sister back in his native country of Mexico, where he is now buried.
His death sparked outrage in Pine Castle, where the majority of residents are Hispanic or Latino, in light of deputies failing to communicate with the two men in Spanish. Neither Lopez nor Duran-Contreras, who needed a Spanish-language interpreter throughout the trial, were fluent English speakers.
One group, Orlando Against Police Crimes, which advocates for accountability for law enforcement officers accused of crimes, called for Duran and Ortiz to face criminal charges. Neither man was accused of criminal wrongdoing and have since returned to full duty status following a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation into the shooting.
Originally Published: October 15, 2025 at 5:24 PM EDT