Florida

‘I Did It': Man Who Raped, Killed Adoptive Mother in Pembroke Pines

Gerard Lopes is currently serving a life sentence at a correctional facility in Jasper, Florida. He showed no emotion when describing how he killed his adoptive mother, and in the interview, he said several times he did not willfully and consciously kill Natalie Belmonte.

"There is a dark side to the story and it's real, and it's unfortunate," Lopes said.

What began as an act of love by Belmonte when she adopted Lopes, ended in a terrifying family tragedy. In 2000, Belmonte took in her 9-year-old cousin after his father passed away.

"She would always say, 'I'm not your real mother, but I feel like I pushed you out,'" Lopes explained.

On July 17, 2011, however, Lopes betrayed that mother-son bond. Prosecutors proved Lopes raped and killed Belmonte inside their Pembroke Pines home after returning from a party.

"You're looking at me, I did it. It was me, but I don’t know why. I couldn't exactly tell you why it happened," Lopes said.

But Lopes does partially remember how he murdered Belmonte, "We were in the room and I was hitting her head on the floor and I just kept hitting her head on the floor and I stopped."

He also recalls how he tried to cover up the crime scene.

"The first thing that came to my mind was try to cover this up. Clean it up. So I just started grabbing sheets off the bed, towels off the floor and cleaned up all the blood."

In his bone-chilling testimony, Lopes goes on to say he put everything in garbage bags, and then moved his mother's body to the car trunk.

"I go and I dump her body in some woods and I go take the trash and put it in the dumpster."

Throughout the interview, the convicted murderer said repeatedly he did not consciously commit the crime. Lopes did, however, clear up a point made by his defense during the trial. Lopes attorneys argued he and Belmonte had a consensual sexual relationship, a claim vehemently denied by the victim's relatives.

"We never had an inappropriate relationship. There was some things that was kind of borderline but I wouldn't say it was inappropriate. We never had a relationship," Lopes said.

Belmonte's family watched the prison interview and released a statement:

"Gerry's crime is unforgivable and we do not believe he conveniently doesn't remember what happened during parts of that night. Our focus now is to remember Natalie and all the good she brought to all of our lives."

Lopes is in the middle of an appeals process. He said he misses his mother and asks his siblings for forgiveness.

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