Chicago woman gets 30 years in prison for helping her mother kill pregnant teenager whose child was removed from her womb

CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago woman who pleaded guilty to helping her mother kill a pregnant teenager in 2019 before the baby was cut from her womb with a butcher knife was sentenced Thursday to 30 years in prison .

Desiree Figueroa, 29, pleaded guilty to murder in January for helping her mother, Clarisa Figueroa, during the attack that left 19-year-old Marlen Ochoa-Lopez dead. She had agreed to testify against her mother, who was convicted in April after also pleading guilty to murder.

“I can never apologize enough for what I did,” Desiree Figueroa said before a Cook County judge sentenced her, WGN-TV reported.

Prosecutors said Clarisa Figueroa strangled Ochoa-Lopez with a cable on April 23, 2019, after luring the teen to her home with promises of free clothes for her unborn child. Ochoa-Lopez was nine months pregnant. Clarisa Figueroa then called 911, saying she had given birth and the child was not breathing.

The child died about two months later.

Desiree Figueroa told police she removed Ochoa-Lopez's fingers from the cable as the teen struggled, then took her mother a knife to cut open Ochoa-Lopez's abdomen to remove the baby, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. His plea deal with prosecutors called for a 30-year sentence.

Authorities said that shortly after her adult son died of natural causes, Clarisa Figueroa told her family she was pregnant. She is said to have plotted for months to acquire a newborn and posted an ultrasound and photos of a room decorated for a baby on her Facebook page. In March 2019, she and Ochoa-Lopez connected on a Facebook page for pregnant women

Detectives investigating Ochoa-Lopez's disappearance learned that she had gone to the home of Clarisa Figueroa. Two weeks after she disappeared, police found her car parked nearby and Desiree Figueroa told them her mother had recently given birth.

DNA testing later determined that the child was not Clarisa Figueroa's.

Ochoa-Lopez's body was found in a trash can outside the Figueroa home.

Yovany Lopez, married to Ochoa-Lopez and the baby's father, said in a statement that he couldn't stand being in the courtroom with Desiree Figueroa during his sentencing.

“I can't stand being in the courtroom, where I will have to share the same air with the monster who strangled my wife, while his mother ripped my baby from her body,” he said in his statement.