Utah man sentenced for sexually abusing child in hospital waiting room
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Cassidy Wixom, KSL.com
SALT LAKE CITY (KSL.com) — A Utah man who inappropriately touched a girl in a hospital waiting room in 2018 has been sentenced to three years to life in prison.
Armando Tobias Lopez, 30, was initially charged in 3rd District Court with sex abuse of a child, a second-degree felony, before the charge was amended to aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony.
Court documents list a home address in West Valley City, but University of Utah Police Chief Dale Brophy said he may have been a transient when he entered the hospital on July 28, 2018.
An 11-year-old girl was sitting in the family waiting room at University of Utah Hospital when Lopez walked in, sat next to the girl and inappropriately touched her, according to charging documents. The girl eventually pushed Lopez away and went to tell her mother.
Brophy said Lopez did not work at the hospital and did not have an appointment anywhere in the building at that time. When interviewed by police, Lopez said he “took a blanket out, and that’s when all that stuff happened,” the charges state.
Lopez’s court case has taken longer to be resolved as he was undergoing competency restoration at the Utah State Hospital and subsequent competency evaluations for several years. In April 2024, Lopez pleaded guilty with a mental condition to attempted aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony.
In a plea statement, Lopez said at the time of the crime he had a diagnosis of an intellectual disability which he still has to this day. The agreement stipulated sentencing would be deferred for a year, and the Department of Human Services would submit treatment recommendations for him.
“I am compliant with the medication administered to me by the medical staff at the Salt Lake County Jail. The Salt Lake County Jail designates my status as SPMI (seriously and persistently mentally ill),” the plea statement says.
On Dec. 10, Lopez was sentenced by 3rd District Judge Amber Mettler to three years to life in prison. He was given credit for the 602 days he has spent receiving treatment at the jail, court documents state.