A judge said Juan Diego Ramos Lopez remained a danger after a 2025 attack witnessed by four of the couple’s children.

BOISE, Idaho — An Idaho man who admitted stabbing his estranged wife 26 times while four of their children were home has been sentenced to 30 years in prison, with a judge ordering him to serve at least half of that term before he can be considered for parole.

Fourth Judicial District Judge Nancy Baskin imposed the sentence on 47-year-old Juan Diego Ramos Lopez after his conviction for domestic violence in the presence of a child with a sentencing enhancement for infliction of great bodily injury. Baskin focused her remarks on the severity of the Nov. 16, 2025, attack in Meridian, the presence of the couple’s children and prosecutors’ account of Ramos Lopez’s earlier domestic violence offenses. Prosecutors said he was on supervised felony probation when the attack occurred. At sentencing, Baskin described him as a continuing danger to people close to him.

The sentence creates a 15-year minimum period of incarceration before Ramos Lopez may become eligible for parole. The maximum term is 30 years. Baskin told him that she could think of few offenses more serious short of the victim’s death and rejected any suggestion that a relationship with the victim reduced the gravity of the crime. “You don’t get to stab the woman you love 26 times in the presence of your children,” the judge said, according to accounts of the sentencing. She later called Ramos Lopez “a clear and present danger.”

The case began early on a Sunday morning in Meridian, west of Boise. Police were called at about 7:25 a.m. to the area of the 1000 block of West Flower Garden Street for a reported domestic violence incident. Officers found a woman who had been stabbed multiple times and needed immediate medical treatment. The Meridian Police Department said at the time that she was taken by ambulance to a hospital in serious but stable condition. Police identified the suspected attacker as her estranged husband, who had left before officers arrived.

Later information released by prosecutors provided a fuller account of what happened inside the home. Prosecutors said Ramos Lopez stabbed his wife 26 times and threatened to kill her during the attack. Four of the couple’s children were in the home. A 16-year-old child intervened, striking Ramos Lopez in an effort to stop the attack and then calling 911. The woman survived. Authorities have not publicly released her name in the reports reviewed for this story, and later accounts did not provide a detailed update on her recovery.

Ramos Lopez had already left Idaho when police began searching for him. Authorities said he traveled into Oregon and was located later that morning near La Grande, roughly 160 miles northwest of Meridian by road. Oregon State Police took him into custody. Prosecutors later said Ramos Lopez still had blood on his hands and possessed the knife used in the attack when he encountered troopers. According to the prosecutor’s account, he admitted stabbing his wife and said she might be dead. She was alive and receiving medical care in Idaho.

The first public account of the case reflected an investigation that was still developing. Meridian police initially said an Ada County warrant had been issued for felony aggravated battery and that additional charges were expected. Ramos Lopez, who was then identified as a 46-year-old Ontario, Oregon, resident, faced extradition proceedings before the Idaho case moved forward. Later court proceedings expanded beyond the initial battery allegation, with Ramos Lopez also facing witness-intimidation counts before the case was resolved through a plea agreement.

Law&Crime, citing Ada County court records, reported that Ramos Lopez entered a guilty plea in July to domestic battery or assault in the presence of a child, with the great-bodily-injury enhancement. Other Idaho reporting described the resulting conviction as occurring July 6. The witness-intimidation counts were dismissed under the plea agreement. Those dismissed allegations therefore did not result in convictions and were not the offenses for which Baskin imposed the 30-year sentence.

The sentencing hearing placed particular weight on circumstances that went beyond the physical injuries. Prosecutors said Ramos Lopez had a long history of domestic violence offenses and was serving supervised felony probation when he attacked his wife. Baskin also emphasized that children were present, including the teenager who intervened. Her comments framed the punishment around the danger she believed Ramos Lopez continued to pose, rather than treating the attack as an isolated event. The court’s sentence ensured that any future decision about release would come only after a lengthy period in prison.

The record also shows how the case changed between the first police response and the final judgment. Officers initially knew they had a seriously injured woman, an absent suspect and witnesses who identified her estranged husband. The search then crossed state lines. Prosecutors later developed the more detailed account of 26 wounds, the child’s intervention, the defendant’s statements in Oregon and his probation status. By the time of sentencing, Ramos Lopez was no longer facing an unresolved accusation of aggravated battery but had admitted a domestic-violence offense carrying an injury enhancement.

Baskin’s remarks drew attention because of their unusually direct assessment of the defendant. “I don’t know that there could be a more serious offense, unless your victim had died,” she told Ramos Lopez. Her statement also underscored the fact that the woman survived an attack prosecutors characterized as potentially fatal. While the judge’s language was forceful, the sentence itself set the legal consequence: a unified term of up to 30 years, with 15 years required before parole eligibility rather than immediate eligibility for release.

Under Baskin’s judgment, Ramos Lopez must serve 15 years before he can be considered for parole and may remain imprisoned for the full 30-year term. The sentence closes the trial-court phase of a case the judge described as among the most serious she had handled short of a killing. No additional proceeding tied to the dismissed witness-intimidation allegations was identified in the public record reviewed for this story.

Author note: Last updated October 21, 2026.