Desiree Figueroa agreed to testify against her mother, Clarisa Figueroa, who allegedly strangled Marlen Ochoa-Lopez and cut a baby out of the victim’s body. (Images: Chicago Police Department via AP)
An Illinois woman accused of helping her mother murder a pregnant woman and “forcibly” remove the victim’s baby from the womb has admitted to her role in the slaying.
Desiree Figueroa, 29, took a plea deal on Monday for 30 years in prison for murder, and in exchange she is expected to testify to helping her mother strangle the pregnant victim and cut a baby out of the body, according to The Chicago Sun-Times.
Prosecutors in Cook County said that the remaining defendant, Clarisa Figueroa, lured the victim, Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, 19, to the home on April 23, 2019, by offering free baby clothes online. Then, as Marlen was looking at a photo album featuring Figueroa’s recently deceased son, the defendant started to strangle her with a coaxial cable, authorities claim.
According to prosecutors, Ochoa-Lopez managed to get a hand under the cable, and Clarisa Figueroa called out to Desiree Figueroa: “You’re not doing your f—— job.”
The daughter managed to pull out Marlen’s fingers one by one, authorities said in the Sun-Times report. Ochoa-Lopez eventually stopped fighting. Desiree Figueroa then brought the kitchen knife that Clarisa Figueroa used to cut the baby out of the victim’s belly.
Clarisa Figueroa then put Ochoa Lopez’s body in a plastic bag and moved the remains to a trash can outside the home, authorities said. She allegedly then called 911, claiming to have given birth and that the baby was not breathing.
Ochoa-Lopez had been nine months pregnant. The child, named by his real family as Yovanny Jadiel Lopez, was placed on life support at a hospital, but he died on June 14, 2019.
As previously reported, Clarisa Figueroa allegedly faked being pregnant beginning 2018, going so far as to post ultrasound pictures online.
Her trial reportedly is set for Jan. 26 and a status hearing is scheduled to take place Tuesday.
Cops caught Clarisa Figueroa’s boyfriend, Piotr Bobak, hosing off a rug with bleach. He pleaded guilty to a charge of concealing a homicide and was sentenced to four years in prison.
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