A Chicago woman pleaded guilty Monday to helping her mother kill a pregnant teenager and cut the teenager’s baby out of her womb, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Desiree Figueroa, 29, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and will testify against her mother, Clarisa Figueroa, according to her plea agreement, according to the Chicago Tribune report. The alleged victim was 19-year-old Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, who reportedly was nine months pregnant and last seen leaving her high school on April 23, 2019.
Prosecutors alleged that the mother-daughter duo lured Ochoa-Lopez to their home with the promise of free baby clothes in April 2019. Clarisa Figueroa then allegedly approached Ochoa-Lopez from behind, while Desiree Figueroa was speaking with Ochoa-Lopez, and strangled the victim with coaxial cables. Clarisa Figueroa then allegedly cut the victim open, took out the baby, and told a dispatcher via 911 that she had just delivered a baby who was not breathing. Both Clarisa Figueroa and Ochoa-Lopez’s baby were taken to a hospital.
Desiree Figueroa allegedly told investigators her mother had given birth, and while at the hospital Clarisa Figueroa denied hosting Ochoa-Lopez at her home despite the presence of Ochoa-Lopez’s car parked near the home, the report noted. The police reportedly determined through DNA analysis that the baby was not Clarisa Figueroa’s. The baby, Yovanny Jadiel Lopez, died June 14, 2019, the outlet noted. (RELATED: Father In Custody After Allegedly Killing Pregnant Wife, Kidnapping Infant Son Who Is Later Found Dead On Roadside)
Clarisa Figueroa allegedly tricked her boyfriend, Piotr Bobak, into believing that the baby was his. Investigators found Bobak cleaning a rug with bleach and a hose in the house but he walked away on sighting the investigators, according to the outlet. Investigators reportedly found Ochoa-Lopez’s body in a garbage can outside the house. Bobak pleaded guilty in 2023 to a felony count of obstruction of justice and bagged a four-year prison sentence, the outlet noted.
Desiree Figueroa reportedly accepted a sentence of 30 years in prison, while Clarisa Figueroa’s trial is scheduled for later in January.
“It’s so hurtful losing a wife that you spent beautiful moments with,” Ochoa-Lopez’s husband, Yovany Lopez, told the outlet.
“We came to this country to give a good life for my daughter, but there’s bad people in this country too, who have taken her life,” Ochoa-Lopez’s father, Arnulfo Ochoa, said.