Woman charged with murder in husband’s shooting death
Catoosa County authorities have charged a Dalton woman with murder in the March shooting death of her husband.
Belinda Lopez, 41, of 319 Chestnut St. was arrested Friday, May 29, Catoosa County Sheriff Gary Sisk said. She is being held without bond in the Catoosa County jail, awaiting her first court appearance.
According to Sisk, the Catoosa County Sheriff’s Office on March 1 responded to a call on I-75 southbound near exit 348. On arrival, deputies found Lopez’s husband, Noel Lopez, 35, the driver of a vehicle, dead from a gunshot wound to the head. The vehicle had two passengers, including Belinda Lopez.
Noel Lopez’s body was sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigations Crime Lab for an autopsy.
“Sheriff’s Office investigators conducted a complete and thorough investigation into this case,” Sisk said. “Based on the findings of the investigation and the results from the crime lab, Sheriff’s Office investigators obtained an arrest warrant for murder.”
In March at the time of the shooting, officials said the three people in the vehicle had been out drinking for several hours at a bar in Chattanooga.
“Statements obtained from the occupants indicate there was a mutually physical domestic argument going on between Noel Lopez and his wife in the front seat while they were traveling down the interstate,” Sisk said at the time. “A gun became involved, and it discharged striking Mr. Lopez in the head. The vehicle came to rest in the middle of I-75 southbound.”
The shooting occurred shortly before 3 a.m. on Sunday, March 1.