{"id":813,"date":"2025-10-13T23:50:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T23:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/813\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T23:50:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T23:50:07","slug":"trial-begins-for-accused-burglar-charged-with-murder-after-orange-county-deputies-kill-homeowner-wftv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/813\/","title":{"rendered":"Trial begins for accused burglar charged with murder after Orange County deputies kill homeowner \u2013 WFTV"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 The trial has begun for an accused burglar who is also charged with murder.<\/p>\n

Deputies responding to a burglary<\/a> at a home on West Castle Street in February ending up fatally shooting the homeowner. In accordance with Florida law, the defendant was changed with murder because someone died during the commission of a crime, even though he wasn\u2019t the one who pulled the trigger.<\/p>\n

When deputies arrived that night, investigators say Jose Luis Lopez was fighting with Cristian Contreras, who they say broke into Lopez\u2019s home. Deputies believed Lopez was armed with a knife and, when he did not respond to commands, they opened fire, killing him.<\/p>\n

The investigation later revealed Lopez did not have a knife.<\/p>\n

Deputies say Contreras had climbed through a kitchen window to get inside. Because investigators determined Contreras was committing a crime at the time, he was arrested on charges including second-degree felony murder and burglary to an occupied dwelling, among others.<\/p>\n

Lopez\u2019s family said he wasn\u2019t responding to deputies\u2019 commands because he didn\u2019t speak English.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

TOP STORIES FROM WFTV CHANNEL 9<\/p>\n

\u00a92025 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 The trial has begun for an accused burglar who is also charged with murder.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1306,1310,1060,1308,1309,28,1302,1301,634,1304,1303,115,1300,139,141,140,1045,1307,1305],"class_list":["post-813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-100_block","tag-bill_schafer","tag-channel_9","tag-christian_duran_contreras","tag-contreras","tag-florida","tag-jose_luis_lopez","tag-kirsten_delgado","tag-local","tag-lopez","tag-loya_zunoun","tag-news","tag-orange_county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-video","tag-west_castle_street","tag-zunoon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}