All Three Suspects Plead Not Guilty In Marlen Ochoa Killing
CHICAGO (CBS)-- The mother and daughter pair charged with the grisly murder of 19-year-old Marlen Ochoa have pleaded not guilty, as has the man charged with helping them cover up the crime, but prosecutors have not yet added new charges in the death of Ochoa's baby, who died more than a month after he was cut from her womb.
Clarisa Figueroa, 46, and her 24-year-old daughter, Desiree Figueroa, were charged with first-degree murder in the April 23 killing of Ochoa, a 19-year-old pregnant woman whose body was found last month in a garbage can behind the Figueroas' house on the Southwest Side. The Figueroas allegedly plotted for weeks to kill Ochoa and steal her baby.
Clarisa Figueroa's boyfriend, Piotr Bobak, is charged with concealing a homicide.
After pleading not guilty to all charges in the case, the three defendants filed a motion requesting a gag order in the case, which would prohibit anyone involved in the case from discussing it in public. The Figueroas will be represented by a public defender.
According to police and prosecutors, the Figueroas strangled Ochoa at their home in the Scottsdale neighborhood on April 23, and then the elder Figueroa cut baby Yovanny Jadiel Lopez from Ochoa's womb, and passed him off as her own when she went to Christ Medical Center.
Yovanny spent more than a month on life support before he died on June 14.
The death of Ochoa's baby was ruled a homicide. The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office determined Yovanny died from lack of oxygen to the brain.
Prosecutors have not yet filed murder charges against the Figueroas in connection with Yovanny's death.
The defendants are due back in court on July 25.
