Albert Lea woman turns herself in for prison sentence after spending a year parenting newborn twins
ALBERT LEA, Minn. (KTTC) – Victoria Ann Lopez said goodbye to her family and voluntarily turned herself in to the Minnesota Department of Corrections office in Albert Lea on Monday.
Lopez was arrested in 2020 and convicted in 2022 for selling methamphetamine. The day after the judge handed down her seven year prison sentence, she gave birth to twin girls.
Through the help of Minnesota’s Healthy Start Act, her sentence start date was delayed and she was allowed to parent her newborns under strict supervision for one year.
Lopez’s friends and family say during that time, she turned her life around through rehabilitation, going to college, and landing a job.
“She’s done a lot. She’s quit everything. All she’s worked for is those babies, you know, and just kind of sucks to see a mother taking away a family, you know, that she’s doing so good for. I mean, she’s pretty much the only one that really does take care of them kids. So, I mean, what’s going to happen with them kids when she’s gone?”
“She’s changed her life, breaking the cycle. Taking her from these children who have only seen her as an angel and trying to explain to a two-year-old that their mom messed up and that why she’s going isn’t even something we could do and we shouldn’t have to do,” said Victoria Lopez’s friend Sabre Bock.
Those who support Lopez are not asking for her sentence to be dropped – but that the judge consider her behavior over the last year and modify her sentence. At the time of Lopez’s surrender, several family members and friends staged a peaceful protest outside the correctional office in Albert Lea.
“It’s just someone shouldn’t get seven years when they have kids, they’ve changed their life around. I mean, if she eligible for probation, I mean, I don’t see why probation would be a problem.”
Lopez’s family said the community came together and donated to support her children in her absence. While Lopez serves out her sentence, her children will be in the care of family members.
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