An Illinois woman who killed a pregnant teen in a gruesome murder has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and has been sentenced to 50 years in prison with no possibility of parole.
In 2019, Clarisa Figueroa lured 19-year-old Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, who was nine months pregnant, to her home with a Facebook post saying she was giving away baby items. There, Clarisa and her daughter Desiree strangled Marlen and cut the teen’s baby boy from her womb using a butcher knife. Clarisa then called 911 and told police that she had given birth, but the baby was not breathing. He was rushed to the hospital and placed on life support.
Investigators were suspicious after Marlen’s husband, Yovanny Lopez, reported her missing, and they also noted that Clarisa didn’t appear to have just given birth. They later found Marlen’s body in garbage can outside the Figueroa home; three weeks later, the baby, who was named Yovanny, was identified as her son through a DNA test.
The infant initially survived, though he was immediately placed on life support. He died 51 days later in his father’s arms. His death was ruled a homicide, as the coroner ruled he died from complications of lack of oxygen and blood to his brain and a prolapse of the umbilical cord and placenta, due to a maternal assault and demise.
Authorities say Clarisa plotted for months to kill a pregnant woman and keep the child as her own. They say she had announced to her family that she was pregnant, even though she had previously had her fallopian tubes tied, and then enlisted the help of her daughter Desiree in luring and strangling Marlen. Desiree was sentenced to a 30-year sentence in January in a plea deal in which she agreed to testify against her mother.
Yovanny Lopez, Marlen’s husband and the baby’s father, described his anguish in a courtroom statement.
“The memory of my infant son’s last breath in my arms is complete agony,” he said. “God’s justice will be served upon you the day you die.”
