A Chicago woman, Clarisa Figueroa, 51, accused of luring a pregnant teenager to her home and cutting her baby from her womb with a butcher knife nearly five years ago has been sentenced to 50 years in prison.
According to Associated Press on Wednesday, Figueroa received the sentence in a Cook County courtroom Tuesday after she pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for the 2019 killing of 19-year-old Marlen Ochoa-Lopez.
According to prosecutors, Figueroa enticed 19-year-old Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, who was nine months pregnant at the time, to her home on April 23, 2019, under the pretense of offering free clothing for her unborn child, only to then strangle her with a cable.
Subsequently, Figueroa dialed 911, falsely claiming she had given birth and that the child was not breathing.
The child died about two months later.
Yovanny Lopez, the husband of the victim Marlen Ochoa-Lopez and father of their child Yovanny Jadiel Lopez, described how the tragedy affected him and the couple’s older child, Joshua, who he said “has lost his mother forever.”
“The memory of my infant son’s last breath in my arms is complete agony,” he said in a statement read in Spanish and English in the courtroom. “… God’s justice will be served upon you the day you die.”
Authorities allege that shortly after the passing of Figueroa’s adult son from natural causes, she told her family she was pregnant. They said that she schemed for months to obtain a newborn, even going as far as posting an ultrasound and images of a nursery decorated for a baby on her Facebook profile.
It is claimed that in March 2019, she and Marlen Ochoa-Lopez connected via a Facebook group designated for expectant mothers.
Detectives investigating Ochoa-Lopez’s disappearance learned that she had gone to the defendant’s home. Two weeks after her disappearance, police found her car parked nearby.
Detectives probing into Ochoa-Lopez’s disappearance discovered that she had visited the defendant’s home.
Approximately two weeks following her disappearance, law enforcement found her vehicle parked nearby and was told by Desiree Figueroa, Clarisa’s daughter, that her mother had recently given birth.
Subsequent DNA tests confirmed that the child was not biologically related to Clarisa Figueroa.
Ochoa-Lopez’s body was discovered in a garbage can outside the Figueroa residence.
Police and prosecutors said Figueroa tricked her boyfriend, Piotr Bobak, into believing he was the father of the child.
Bobak, who cleaned up the crime scene, was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice last year.
Desiree Figueroa, aged 29, pleaded guilty to murder in January for her involvement in assisting her mother and received a 30-year prison sentence. She had also agreed to testify against her mother as part of her plea agreement.
