Say What Now? Woman Who Helped Mom Murder Pregnant Teen Whose Baby Was Ripped from Womb Sentenced

Second woman charged in 2019 murder of Marlen Ochoa-Lopez gets 30-year sentence.

CHICAGO — The second woman who pleaded guilty to killing a pregnant teen and cutting the unborn child out of her womb five years ago said, “I’m sorry,” as she was sentenced Thursday.

“I can never apologize enough for what I did,” Desiree Figueroa, dressed in a blue jumpsuit, said before a Cook County judge sentenced her to 30 years behind bars for the death of Marlen Ochoa-Lopez.

“Your mom put you in the position you were in, and so did you,” Judge Peggy Chiampas said. “You’re right, you can never apologize. I want you to live with that for the rest of your life.”

Figueroa, 29, pleaded guilty to murder in January for helping her mother, Clarisa Figueroa, commit the gruesome crime on April 23, 2019. She will receive credit for the 1843 days — more than five years — she’s been locked up.

Desiree Figueroa took a plea deal in exchange for a 30-year sentence and agreeing to testify against her mother. Clarisa Figueroa also pleaded guilty and in April was sentenced to 50 years in prison.

Prosecutors say Clarisa and Desiree lured 19-year-old Marlen Ochoa-Lopez to their home on the promise of free baby clothes. When Ochoa-Lopez got there, police say Clarisa and Desiree strangled Ochoa-Lopez with a cable and then cut the baby boy from her womb.

Clarisa then called police, saying Ochoa-Lopez had given birth and the baby wasn’t breathing. Police found Ochoa-Lopez’s body in a garbage can. The baby boy lived for about two months.

“(Thursday), Desiree Figueroa will be sentenced for the murder of an innocent mother and her infant son, who was ripped from her womb while Desiree Figueroa strangled her to death,” Pastor Julie Contreras of United Giving Hope, a spokesperson for Ochoa-Lopez’s family, said in a statement prior to the sentencing. “The years she will be sentenced (are) not enough time for this demonic woman, who is a real threat to our society.

Authorities said the crime plot started when Clarisa Figueroa’s adult son died of natural causes in 2018, after which she told her family she was pregnant.

They say she plotted for months to acquire a newborn and that she posted an ultrasound and photos of a room decorated for a baby on her Facebook page. In March 2019, she and Ochoa-Lopez connected on a Facebook page for pregnant women.

Detectives investigating Ochoa-Lopez’s disappearance learned that she had gone to the Figueroas’ home. Two weeks after her disappearance, police found her car parked nearby and were told by Desiree Figueroa that Clarisa Figueroa had recently given birth.

DNA tests later determined the child was not Clarisa Figueroa’s.

Ochoa-Lopez’s family chose not to attend Figueroa’s sentencing. But Yovany Lopez, the husband of Ochoa-Lopez and father to the baby who died after being cut out of her womb, issued a statement:

“I cannot bear to be in the courtroom, where I will have to share the same air with the monster that strangled my wife, while her mother mother ripped my baby son out out of her body,” Lopez’s statement said. “I cannot bear to look at this monster, knowing that one day she will be released back into our community, where she can harm someone again.

“I cannot bear to look at this monster who choked and choked and choked my wife until her life was gone. I cannot bear this agony.”

via: WGNTV.com

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