The daughter of a woman accused of strangling a pregnant teen and cutting out her unborn child has agreed to testify against her mother.
In a deal that will send her to prison for 30 years, Desiree Figueroa pleaded guilty on Monday to the 2019 murder of 19-year-old Marlen Ochoa-Lopez.
Prosecutors allege that Figueroa’s mother, Clarisa Figueroa, lured Ochoa-Lopez to her Southwest Side home with an offer of free baby clothes. She is accused of using a length of coaxial cable to strangle the teen, then a knife to cut Ochoa-Lopez’s child from the womb.
Desiree Figueroa, 29, has told police she pried Ochoa-Lopez’s fingers off the cable as the teen struggled, then brought her mother a kitchen knife to cut open Ochoa-Lopez’s abdomen.
The deal with prosecutors requires her to take the stand at her mother’s trial, now set for Jan. 26.
Marlen Ochoa-Lopez went to a home in the 4100 block of 77th Place for free baby clothes advertised on Facebook the day she went missing in April 2019.
Provided; Mitch Dudek/Sun-Times
Friends said Ochoa-Lopez had been corresponding with Clarisa Figueroa on a Facebook page for expectant mothers, and that the older woman had offered Ochoa-Lopez, who was nine months pregnant, free clothes for her child.
After removing the baby, Clarisa Figueroa called 911 and claimed to have just given birth, according to prosecutors. The child was taken to Christ Hospital and placed on life-support, with a GoFundMe page set up to raise money for his care.
Ochoa-Lopez had been missing for about three weeks when police found her body inside a trash can at the side of the Figueroa home in the 4100 block of West 77th Place in mid-May 2019. Ochoa-Lopez’s car was found a few doors down from the house.
When police visited Figueroa’s house, her boyfriend Piotr Bobak was hosing off a bleach-soaked rug. He was charged with concealing the murder and also has pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to four years in prison.
The baby was eventually identified as Ochoa-Lopez’s through DNA. He died after several weeks without ever leaving the hospital. He was named for his father, Yovani Lopez.
Desiree Figueroa was pregnant herself at the time of the murder and gave birth six months later in November of 2019.
The case is similar to one that occurred in DuPage County nearly three decades ago.
Debra Evans and her two children were killed in their Addison apartment in 1995. Her 7-year-old son Joshua was abducted and stabbed to death. His body was left in an alley.
Evans’ womb was slashed and her nearly full-term son was removed. The baby, Elijah, survived and his brother Jordan was unharmed.
Levern Ward, who fathered Elijah and Jordan, is serving a life sentence for murder. So are Fedell Caffey and Jacqueline Williams. Prosecutors said Williams — a cousin of Ward — wanted the unborn child.