Jury finds Acosta guilty

Thomas Acosta

A Lincoln County jury found Thomas Acosta guilty Friday afternoon of first-degree sodomy, second-degree sexual abuse and two counts of fourth-degree assault involving the attack of April Loper in a South Beach apartment on Dec. 15, 2011.

The Seattle man, who was initially charged with 18 sex-related and coercion crimes, will be sentenced at 2 p.m. Feb. 14 in the Circuit Courtroom of Judge Thomas O. Branford.

Loper, who grew up in Toledo, died last Oct. 25 along with her father, Daniel Loper, following a head-on collision with another vehicle on Highway 20 east of Eddyville.

Her infant son survived the crash.

The eight-day trial had originally been scheduled to begin on Nov. 27, 2012, but was delayed because procedural complications.

(See Friday’s News-Times story on the trial on Page A2; a story on the trial's conclusing will be published in next Wednesday’s News-Times).



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