Jordan Thomas Piper appears in two photos; one of his children appears in a photo, on the far left, with his face blurred. (Defendant’s sentencing memorandum; El Dorado County)
A California father has been sentenced to spend over a decade behind bars in a federal child sexual exploitation case – while facing state charges for the alleged murder and torture of his 11-year-old son.
Jordan Thomas Piper, 38, pleaded guilty in March to making “surreptitious recordings” of a girl under 18. He was charged with that offense by federal prosecutors in June 2022.
In October 2021, the defendant and his wife, Lindsay Piper, 40, were charged with the murder of Roman Anthony Lopez, 11, found hidden in a storage bin in the family’s basement in January 2020 at their residence in Placerville, California, a small town in the Sacramento metropolitan area. The couple was previously charged with torture and child abuse over his death in February 2021.
While investigating the child’s murder, officers with the Placerville Police Department seized various digital devices from the Piper household. They discovered child sexual abuse materials produced between October 2019 and January 2020 in Tuolumne and El Dorado counties.
Local investigators alerted federal investigators to what they found. The FBI secured a warrant for a GoPro SPTM1 and the defendant’s cellphone. The FBI determined that Jordan Piper had removed the camera from behind a wall outlet in the bathroom of a rental home in Groveland, California, where he and the minor girl lived. A further search uncovered “many videos” of the minor victim “using the bathroom and bathing, where her genitals were visible.”
A search of the phone turned up even more.
“Approximately 433 nude images of Minor Victim 1 were found on Jordan Piper’s cell phone in the cache and screenshots section of the phone, as well as cache folders and screenshot folders in a secure folder on the phone,” federal agents wrote in a criminal complaint. “Many of those images created by Jordan Piper were focused shots of Minor Victim 1’s genitals or pubic area. In addition, the video camera was placed in a manner to maximize the chances of recording the genitals of Minor Victim 1 and other users of the bathroom.”
On Monday, Jordan Piper was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the child sexual exploitation charges. After that, he will be subject to seven-and-a-half years of supervised release, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California.
The defendant also communicated with the minor girl via text messages and encouraged her to engage in sexual activity, the complaint said.
One such exchange is described in general and specific terms:
Between December 16, 2019 and December 24, 2019, the defendant sent a series of text messages concerning a sexual “Christmas gift,” and asked for the opinion of Minor Victim 1. Eventually these texts escalated into sending pictures of it to Minor Victim 1, then requesting that Minor Victim 1 use the “Christmas gift” on herself, and then offering $250 to use it on herself.
In a sentencing memo, the government asked for the defendant to be put on supervised release for life. In the defendant’s memo, his attorney requested five years of supervised release. Both sides agreed on the time to be spent in prison.
“During 2019, Mr. Piper made terrible decisions which led to this case,” defense attorney Tasha Chalfant wrote. “He felt tremendous financial and personal stress, was working extensive hours, was using nonprescribed pills and drinking alcohol and using other substances as soon as he got home from work each night. His longtime mental health issues were then exacerbated, which began compromising his daily choices. In this case, he completely lost himself and his moral compass, and he has tremendous remorse and shame for his conduct. Mr. Piper is reflective and dedicated to living an honorable life again.”
Jordan Piper’s fate in the murder case ahead of him is another story, though no trial date has yet to be set.
The Pipers each initially pleaded not guilty to their murder charges. In May of this year, however, Lindsay Piper changed her plea to no contest on one charge of murder in the second degree. She was sentenced to spend 15 years to life in prison in July 2022.
Judge Vicki Ashworth upbraided Lindsay Piper just before sentencing.
“[Lindsay Piper] didn’t deserve to be [Roman’s] stepmother, quite frankly,” the judge said. “[T]he court can think of no more evil person than that.”
Alberto Luperon and Jerry Lambe contributed to this report.
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