A Chicago lady who killed a pregnant teenager and aimed to move the infant off as her personal pleaded responsible to homicide Tuesday and was sentenced to 50 years in jail, prosecutors stated.
In April 2019, Clarisa Figueroa, 51, who had been pretending to be pregnant, fatally strangled Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, 19, who was eight months pregnant, in accordance to a authorized doc often known as a bond proffer obtained by The Related Press.
Ms. Figueroa reduce Ms. Ochoa-Lopez’s child from her physique in hopes of passing him off as her personal, the courtroom report stated. The boy later died.
Now, Ms. Figueroa is ready to serve her sentence at an Illinois state jail, based on the Prepare dinner County State’s Lawyer’s Workplace, ending a grim five-year case that surprised a neighborhood and left a husband widowed and with no son.
“The reminiscence of my toddler son’s final breath in my arms is full agony,” the infant’s father, Yovanny Lopez, stated in a press release within the courtroom Tuesday, based on The A.P.
Ms. Figueroa and her daughter, Desiree Figueroa, have been arrested in Might 2019 after investigators discovered Ms. Ochoa-Lopez’s automotive close to Ms. Figueroa’s dwelling after which found Ms. Ochoa-Lopez’s stays stuffed in a rubbish bag in Ms. Figueroa’s storage, based on the proffer.
Ms. Ochoa-Lopez’s household had reported her lacking.
Ms. Figueroa had recognized Ms. Ochoa-Lopez. They met on a Fb group web page for anticipating moms in March 2019 when Ms. Ochoa-Lopez, responding to a submit by Ms. Figueroa providing free child garments to pregnant moms anticipating to ship in Might, visited her dwelling.
Ms. Figueroa appeared to have joined the Fb web page to maintain up the ruse of a pretend being pregnant.
A month earlier, she posted within the group a photograph of a nursery and stated she deliberate to call her child Xander, constructing on a deception that started in December 2018, when she first claimed to be pregnant.
The information got here as a shock to her daughter, since Ms. Figueroa had beforehand had her fallopian tubes tied.
The announcement got here after the demise of Ms. Figueroa’s son, 20, earlier that 12 months.
To kill Ms. Ochoa-Lopez and steal her child, Ms. Figueroa enlisted the assistance of her daughter, Desiree, then 24.
They initially deliberate to homicide her of their dwelling on April 1, 2019, however the plan was foiled when Desiree’s boyfriend threatened to name the police after listening to of their plan. Desiree later advised her boyfriend that the plan was an April Idiot’s joke.
However Ms. Ochoa-Lopez would return to the Figueroa dwelling on April 23.
This time, Ms. Figueroa managed to strangle Ms. Ochoa-Lopez in the lounge with a cable as her daughter subdued her. After the killing, the pair sliced her stomach open and eliminated the fetus, a boy, after which referred to as 911 to assert that Ms. Figueroa had simply given delivery to a child who was not respiration.
Paramedics took Ms. Figueroa and the infant to the hospital.
Members of the medical workers suspected one thing was awry, as Ms. Figueroa confirmed no indicators of getting given delivery, based on prosecutors.
Ms. Figueroa saved up the ruse within the ensuing weeks, making a GoFundMe fund-raiser through which she continued to assert the infant as her personal, based on prosecutors. Her boyfriend, Piotr Bobak, shared the marketing campaign on his Fb web page together with a photograph of the infant in vital situation. The child died months later, The Related Press reported.
The seek for the lacking teenager quickly led investigators to Ms. Figueroa’s dwelling. On Might 14, they executed a search warrant on the dwelling, the place they found Ms. Ochoa-Lopez’s decayed stays, prosecutors stated.
A DNA check confirmed that Ms. Figueroa was not the infant’s mom and confirmed that the dad and mom have been Ms. Ochoa-Lopez and Mr. Lopez.
Ms. Figueroa, her daughter and Ms. Figueroa’s boyfriend have been taken into custody. Final 12 months, Mr. Bobak, who investigators stated helped clear the homicide scene, pleaded responsible to obstruction of justice and was sentenced to 4 years in jail, The Chicago Tribune reported.
Ms. Figueroa’s daughter, Desiree, pleaded responsible to homicide and was sentenced to 30 years in January, based on The Chicago Tribune.
