Loved Ones of Slain Germantown Mom, Son Speak Out at Killer’s Sentencing

Family and friends of a slain Germantown mother and son expressed guilt, sadness and anger, as the man convicted of killing them sat emotionless, awaiting sentencing Monday in a Rockville courtroom.

Curtis Lopez received the maximum sentence possible in the state of Maryland—two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole—for the brutal murders of Jane McQuain and her 11-year-old son William in October 2011.

“This man does not deserve another breath of freedom,” a friend of Jane McQuain testified as one of eight people to read letters before the judge.

McQuain was found stabbed and beaten to death in her Germantown apartment. William’s body was found days later in a wooded area near a Clarksburg gas station. He had been beaten to death with a metal bat.

There was no trial because Lopez took an Alford plea—which does not admit guilt, but acknowledges that there’s enough evidence for a guilty conviction.

But before Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Beth McCormick delivered her sentence Monday, the McQuains’ loved ones got their chance to be heard.

According to court testimony, Jane McQuain was open about her past—that she had struggled with alcohol addiction but sobered up so that her son could have a chance at life.

Loved ones testified that they didn’t remember McQuain talking much about her estranged husband, Curtis Lopez, whom she referred to as “the guy in North Carolina.”

“Now I see why,” said a Germantown mom whose son was best friends with William, part of a group of buddies who called themselves the “amigos.”

William’s godmother testified that her daughter looked to William as a brother. She still had his red jacket and was having a hard time letting go of it. She refused to take it off.

“Mommy, that’s the only way that I can keep my brother close to me and nobody will harm him,” his godmother said her daughter told her.

The harshest testimony came from Jane McQuain’s family.

“This boy’s done more in his 11 years than you’ve ever done your entire life,” said Jane McQuain’s cousin, Suzanne McQuain Hicks, holding in her hands a quilt made from William McQuain’s artwork.

She looked directly at Lopez and told him that he was “not a person” and that he would be forgotten by society.

William McQuain—the boy's namesake, Jane McQuain's brother and the last to testify—said he had yet to explain to his daughters what exactly happened to their cousin. He said he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Before he sat back down in the gallery, he said Lopez was a “cancer that preyed on innocent victims.”

“And when he finally does die—if anyone even notices,” McQuain said, “their final thoughts will be ‘good riddance.’”

Lopez’s attorneys, public defenders Alan Drew and Stefanie McArdle, wanted to bar the testimony—called victim impact statements—and objected to allowing the prosecution to show a six-minute video composed of photos of Jane McQuain and William McQuain from birth to death. They argued that the video did not meet the definition of a suitable witness statement.

“It doesn’t call for a life history of the victims,” McArdle said Monday.

The judge denied the requests.

The defense also asked for concurrent life sentences with the chance for parole.

“His willing plea obviates the need for a trial and needs to be addressed by this court,” McArdle said.

A trial, McArdle said, would have been “emotionally taxing.”

After the testimony from the victims’ loved ones, McArdle said there had never been violence reported against Jane and Wiliam McQuain at the hands of Lopez.

The defense disputed the prosecution’s claim that Lopez came to Maryland with the sole purpose of killing his estranged wife for financial gain. McCardle said Jane McQuain paid for Lopez’s Amtrak ticket to Germantown, that he had quit his job and wanted to relocate and win her back.

Jane McQuain married Lopez more than 20 years ago while he was incarcerated. They never lived together. Though William McQuain is not Lopez’s biological son, he is the man that William called his father, according to court testimony.

The prosecution painted a more sinister picture of Lopez and the circumstances behind his visit—arguing that while he was on his “family trip” to Maryland, he was sending his girlfriend in North Carolina photos of Jane McQuain’s SUV, and said it was the car he planned to bring back to her.

“Look what I got my baby,” Lopez said when he got back to North Carolina, according to the account Deputy State’s Attorney John Maloney gave during the sentencing hearing.

Blood splatter was still on Lopez's boots and clothes, Maloney said.

During the hearing, prosecutors displayed the gruesome crime scene photos, showing in graphic detail how police found Jane and William McQuain's bodies—bloody and nearly unrecognizable.

“I saw hardened officers break down crying when William’s body was found,” Maloney said.

One of the images was of William McQuain's corpse, which had most of the head missing. His skull had not yet been reconstructed.

Lopez, wearing a green jumpsuit and wire-free glasses, wiped his face with tissues a few times during the proceedings.

He did not look up at the image of William McQuain's body.