Legacy Matters

With her last breath

Mabel Lopez, mother of 8, GED graduate and teacher of English as a second language lived in Phoenix for 40 years, reached out to anyone who needed help.

Two men, illegal immigrants, were on the street when Mabel found them.  She let them live in a studio apartment behind her house, even gave them work painting rental houses she owned. 

When she found them drinking beer at her house, she asked them to leave. They stabbed her.

With her last breath, she prayed for her killers

"At the first trial, they asked him (Martinez), 'What was the lady saying, was she screaming for help?' And he said, 'No, she said, "May God have mercy on your souls," ' " Paddack recalled. "With her dying breath, she was praying for her murderers. She wasn't praying for her children; she wasn't praying to have her life saved. She was praying for her murderer's souls. That's a hell of a lesson."

Condolences to her family.