LITTLE VILLAGE — A second woman pleaded guilty Tuesday in the horrific killing of 19-year-old Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, who was attacked at a Southwest Side home before her baby was cut out of her womb.
Clarisa Figueroa, 51, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder Tuesday for her role in the case. Cook County Judge Peggy Chiampas sentenced Figueroa to 50 years in prison, said Tandra Simonton, chief communications officer for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.
She must serve all 50 years and cannot be released on parole, the Sun-Times reported. She did not make a statement in court, according to the Sun-Times.
Chiampas told Figueroa that Ochoa-Lopez’s family ” … live every single day with the actions that you put into motion on April 23, 2019,” the Tribune reported. “Every single day, I want you to think of those individuals. Every single day,” Chiampas said.
Her daughter, Desiree Figueroa, pleaded guilty to the same charge earlier this year and agreed to testify against her mother. Prosecutors recommended a 30-year sentence, but her sentencing hasn’t happened yet, Simonton said.
Clarisa Figueroa’s sentencing concludes the nearly five-year-long saga for Ochoa-Lopez’s family to find justice.
In April 2019, the Figueroas lured a pregnant Ochoa-Lopez to Clarisa Figueroa’s Southwest Side home with the promise of giving her baby clothes, prosecutors have said. There, the two women strangled Ochoa-Lopez and cut her baby — later named Yovanny Jadiel Lopez — from her womb, prosecutors said.
Ochoa-Lopez’s body was found in a trash can in the backyard of Clarisa Figueroa’s home, authorities said.
Clarisa Figueroa called 911 after the attack, claiming she had given birth at home, prosecutors said. Authorities determined the baby was not hers after an examination and a DNA test.
Yovanny died after nearly two months in the Intensive Care Unit at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
Both Figueroa women have been held without bail since they were charged in May 2019.
Julie Contreras, a spokesperson for Ochoa-Lopez’s family, said the family is grateful to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office for their work, but no amount of time the Figueroas spend in prison will bring back Ochoa-Lopez or Yovanny.
Yovanny Lopez, Ochoa-Lopez’s husband and Yovanny’s father, wrote a victim impact statement that was read during Clarisa Figueroa’s sentencing on Tuesday. He said the murder of his wife has “hurt me physically, scarred me emotionally for which I will never recover.”
“I have nightmares and depression over her death, grief, and sorrow. My son Joshua and I have lost her love, affection, attention, companionship, comfort, guidance, and protection,” he wrote. “My son Joshua Lopez has lost his mother forever.
“The memory of my infant son’s last breath in my arms is complete agony. I try every day to understand desperately and sort out what happened to my wife & infant son, but it is so painful,” Yovanny Lopez wrote.
Last year, Clarisa Figueroa’s boyfriend, Piotr Bobak, accepted an obstruction of justice plea for his role in the 2019 killing. Bobak was initially charged with concealment of a homicide, concealment of a death and obstruction of justice.
Though Bobak’s lawyer said his client had nothing to do with the slaying, prosecutors said he was found cleaning a carpet with bleach and a hose when police arrived with a warrant to search Clarisa Figueroa’s home. Bobak was given a four-year sentence in the plea deal.
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