Man who started Henry’s Fork fire sentenced for witness intimidation, other felonies dropped
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IDAHO FALLS – A man who started the Henry’s Creek fire in 2016 was sentenced this week for felony witness intimidation.
Two out of three of the felony charges against Kristian Lopez, 25, were dismissed by the prosecutor, but Lopez was found guilty of witness intimidation.
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Judge Bruce Pickett sentenced Lopez to 1 to 5 years in prison after threatening a woman with a knife and then asking her to lie to get him out of jail.
Lopez was originally charged with felony aggravated assault, felony third-degree arson, felony witness intimidation, misdemeanor domestic battery, and misdemeanor use or possession of drug paraphernalia.
Lopez pleaded not guilty to the arson, aggravated assault and two misdemeanors in May, and pleaded guilty to witness intimidation in April.
All charges except felony witness intimidation were dropped by the Bonneville County Prosecutor.
Bonneville County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Lopez on April 9 after witnesses reportedly saw him holding a knife and threatening a woman.
When interviewed by deputies, Lopez said he had gotten into an argument with the woman about where she had been all night and her clothing.
Lopez said the woman had “threw a soda at him”, called him a piece of s*** and that she hated him.
When speaking to witnesses who saw the interaction, they said that Lopez pointed a knife at the woman and described it as “having serrated teeth on it” which deputies say matches the knife found in Lopez’s pocket.
They also said that they heard Lopez tell the woman that he was going to “stab her with a knife.”
One witness who saw the incident reportedly got in her car and followed Lopez and the man so she could tell deputies where they were.
Lopez was taken to the Bonneville County Jail where deputies found a piece of tin foil in his pocket “with residue on it.” Lopez told officers that it was fentanyl and he was then booked for aggravated assault, domestic battery, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Ten days later, deputies located a video chat between Lopez and the woman, while Lopez was still incarcerated in the Bonneville County Jail, according to court documents.
Lopez told the woman, “Get me out, get me home, get the charges dropped against me.” According to police, he also said, “Why did you cry and f****** tell them some stupid f****** s**** on the other side of the car?”
Later on, Lopez tells the woman, “You need to go to court and say this, you can do that on your own free will, you can do whatever you want, I’m not telling you that you have to do or say anything, I’m just letting you know.”
The woman responded, asking Lopez if she was supposed to “just go in there and say I lied?”
To which Lopez responded, “You can do whatever you want on your own free will.”
Deputies also discovered text messages between Lopez and the woman, where Lopez said, “It’d be cool if you could call the courthouse and find out how I can get a NCO dropped and find out how (the woman) can drop all charges against me and testify on my behalf cuz I’m pretty sure that’s what she wants to do.”
Lopez also tried to convince her to give him her real phone number after she canceled her scheduled visits to see him in jail.
He then asked the woman to show up in court that day to testify for him that he didn’t threaten her or point a knife at her.