Prosecutor: Pregnant teen was strangled

A pregnant Chicago teen who was killed and whose baby was cut from her womb was strangled while being shown a photo album of the late son and brother of her attackers, a prosecutor said Friday in urging a judge to keep the defendants locked up.

Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy told Cook County Judge Susana Ortiz that 19-year-old Marlen Ochoa-Lopez managed to get her fingers under the cord around her neck and that the woman strangling her, Clarisa Figueroa, then yelled at her daughter, “You’re not doing your f—-ing job!”

The daughter, 24-year-old Desiree Figueroa, then pried Ochoa-Lopez’s fingers from the cord “one by one” while her mother continued to strangle the teen for another five minutes, Murphy said. With OchoaLopez showing no signs of life, Clarisa Figueroa, 46, cut her open with a butcher’s knife and removed the placenta and baby, which she put in a bucket.

The two then put the teen’s body in a garbage can and Clarisa Figueroa called 911, claiming that her newborn baby was not breathing, authorities said. When first responders arrived, the child was blue. They tried to resuscitate the infant and transported Clarisa Figueroa and the boy to a nearby hospital, where police said he remained in grave condition and was not expected to survive. Figueroa, meanwhile, had blood on her upper body but no physical sign that she had given birth, according to investigators.

The judge denied bond to the Figueroas, who are charged with murder, saying she felt “the presumption is great” that they committed a “heinous and brutal murder” and that they pose “a real and present” danger to the community. She also denied bond to Clarisa Figueroa’s boyfriend, 40year-old Piotr Bobak, who is charged with the concealment of a homicide.