From left: Carolina Marquez, Fernando Marquez and Conzuelo “Nicole” Solorio-Romero (Unified Police of Greater Salt Lake).
A 43-year-old Utah woman and her son were sentenced for their roles in a brutal kidnapping and shooting death of a victim who they targeted after they learned she was cooperating with police in a case involving a family member.
Carolina Marquez was sentenced to two to 20 years for second-degree manslaughter and six years to life for first-degree aggravated kidnapping. The sentences will be served consecutively. Marquez”s son, 27-year-old Fernando Marquez, received a suspended prison sentence on Monday after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice.
According to the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office, Carolina Marquez orchestrated the kidnapping of 25-year-old Conzuelo “Nicole” Solorio-Romero on Feb. 6, 2021. Carolina Marquez had two men, Orlando Tobar and Jorge Medina-Reyes, remove the victim from an apartment at gunpoint. The men forced her into a car at gunpoint and Carolina Marquez told them to “kill some time” by driving to the border with Wyoming and back. Once they returned to the Salt Lake City area, Carolina Marquez had them drive to her home in West Valley City.
Tobar then brought the victim at knifepoint into the home. The suspects then questioned Solorio-Romero about her providing information to cops that led to the arrest of Carolina Marquez’s son. Once she coughed up the information, Medina-Reyes shot her in the head. Tobar shot her a second time.
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The suspects gathered at Carolina Marquez’s taco restaurant where they planned how to dispose of Solorio-Romero’s body. They called a man known as “The Mechanic,” later identified as Cristian Morales, who helped dispose of the body. The suspects wrapped the body in plastic bags and Tobar and Morales drove the body to a field in Tooele County where they dumped the remains.
Meanwhile, Carolina Marquez stayed behind at her home to clean up the crime scene. According to a courtroom report from local NBC affiliate KSL, photos showed Carolina Marquez laughing and calmly cleaning up the scene “as though someone had spilled a glass of milk.”
Carolina Marquez admitted her “reckless actions” led to Solorio-Romero’s death but claimed she did not believe the victim was going to be killed. Prosecutors reportedly dubbed her remorse as “not genuine.”
Solorio-Romero’s sister Jessica Romero-McDonald read a victim impact statement during the sentencing hearing.
“Nicole wasn’t just a random person you grew to hate; she was my sister, she was a mother, and she was my mother’s daughter,” Romero-McDonald said. “And although you took her from us, you will never take who she truly was from us… I will follow your prison journey, and the moment you have a parole hearing, I will be there, reminding you and the system why you should not be out in our community with our children, our sisters, our mothers and our society. You don’t deserve any forgiveness from us, as we don’t forgive you.”
As Law&Crime previously reported, Tobar, 34, and Medina-Reyes, 26, pleaded guilty to murder and aggravated kidnapping. Both men were sentenced to two terms of 15 years to life in prison. Two others pleaded to misdemeanor desecration of a body charges.
“We mourn the loss of Nicole and sympathize with the pain that her family and loved ones have endured and will likely continue to face the rest of their lives. We hope that the conclusion of this case will help our community feel safer now that a judge has determined [Carolina Marquez] will spend years behind bars for her heinous crimes,” Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said in a statement.
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