Arrest in Lopez case

SEATTLE A second man has been arrested in the beating death of an Odessa man at a downtown construction site a day after he lost a wrestling match for the informal title "King of Freeway Park."

Police officer Jeffrey R. Kappel said detectives took Marcus D. Dennis, 20, into custody in the downtown area without incident Monday, the same day Steven D. Bauder, 22, was ordered held without bail in the death of Noel Richard Lopez, of Odessa.

Dennis also had been sought on a warrant accusing him of failure to appear in court on a theft charge.

No others are being sought in the beating of Lopez, whose body was found April 14, Kappel said.

About 20 people watched Bauder defeat Lopez in an informal wrestling match a day before the fatal beating, investigators wrote in documents filed in King County Superior Court.

According to court filings, Lopez annoyed the Bauder's friends, so he and Dennis took the Odessan to the construction site to "handle this problem and straighten him out."

Bauder told detectives Lopez "came at him to fight him." Investigators wrote that the pair knocked him unconscious in a beating that lasted for hours.

Relatives said Lopez, fired after working as a hotel valet, was taking a break from the Art Institute of Seattle while fighting bipolar disorder - manic high and depressive lows - that worsened in recent months.

"His friends were trying to help him," his father, Gerald Lopez, said.

Friends also said Lopez was bipolar and was turned away when they sought help for him at two local hospitals.

"I could see him going downhill a little bit in the last two months," former co-worker Drew Dickens said. "But, I didn't think he was that serious about fighting. When he would challenge people, it was a friend-to-friend thing. He wasn't aggressive and you could tell he was a great guy.

"I think he just came across the wrong people," Dickens said. 

WHAT'S HAPPENED?

>> Workers in Seattle found the body of 25-year-old Noel Richard Lopez about 8 a.m. April 14 at a construction site. Lopez had fatal injuries to his head and torso.

>> The former Odessan had left his hometown to study animation at the Art Institute of Seattle, his parents said.

>> Lopez, the son of Jerry and Patricia Lopez, graduated from Odessa High in 2001 and was known by many in the community for his various talents in athletics, academia, acting, art and music. He played soccer for OHS and bass in the orchestra, tennis at Ector Junior High and was a high-flyer in entertainment wrestling.

>> Two men are suspected in the killing. Steven D. Bauder, 22, and Marcus D. Dennis, 20, have been arrested and charged with murder.

>> An autopsy by the King County Medical Examiner concluded Lopez died of massive injury to the head caused from blunt force trauma. Lopez suffered numerous other injuries.