John Jefferson
Saul Lucio-Ipina (Kent County Jail).
A man pleaded no contest to torture charges during his trial in Michigan after his ex-wife gave emotional testimony about how he electrocuted her and forced her to stand atop a bucket with a rope around her neck.
Saul Lucio-Ipina, 30, made the plea after the first day of the trial in Grand Rapids, according to MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. Lucio-Ipina faced charges related to two incidents that occurred last year in the couple’s basement, MLive reported.
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The woman, who has since divorced Lucio-Ipina, described to the jury the horrific abuse she suffered at the hands of her husband, a courtroom report from MLive said. The first incident reportedly happened in January 2023. Lucio-Ipina accused her of cheating and forced her to the basement where he had a bucket on the floor and a rope hung on a ceiling beam. He made her stand on top of the bucket.
“And then he put the rope around my neck,” she reportedly testified.
At one point, she slipped off the bucket and hung in the air, she reportedly said, only for her husband to take her down. Then about two months later, during another argument about infidelity, he again took her down to the basement where he forced her into a children’s swing that hung from the ceiling.
“He tied me up with rope and a metal wire around my arms and through my back,” she reportedly testified. “I couldn’t get up if I wanted to.”
The terrifying abuse continued. She said Lucio-Ipina hooked jumper cables to the exposed wire, causing her to be electrocuted.
“Any time I would answer a question or didn’t answer a question, he would zap me,” she reportedly told jurors.
Lucio-Ipina had her tied up for five hours before he got “tired” and released her, MLive reported. She reported the incident a couple of days later and cops arrested Lucio-Ipina.
The aforementioned incidents were undoubtedly torture, Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Angela Curtis reportedly told jurors during her opening statement.
“His intent was to inflict as much pain and suffering … as possible,” Curtis reportedly said.
By the end of the first day of opening statements and testimony, Lucio-Ipina had apparently seen enough. He pleaded no contest to two counts of torture and witness interference, MLive reported. A no-contest plea is not an admission of guilt but is treated as such during sentencing, which is scheduled for Oct. 28.
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