A California woman who executed her sister and her sister's baby while they slept to resolve a sibling rivalry was sentenced to life in prison this week.
Yarelly Solorio-Rivera, 25, was given two life sentences in the 2022 murder of Rivera's 18-year-old sister, Yanelly, and her 3-week-old baby, Celine Solorio-Rivera, ABC-30 reported. The pair was shot and killed at about 7:20 a.m. while they slept on September 24.
Previously, her boyfriend, Martin Arroyo-Morales, was sentenced to 22 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter in the case.
"We saw no remorse whatsoever, no guilt, no apprehension," Fresno Police Chief Paco Balderrama said at the time of the couple's arrest in 2022, according to the Fresno Bee. "I've never seen something like this."
"We see a lot of violence in Fresno. Typically, it's risky behavior or gangsters shooting each other, and to a certain degree, you expect that violence," Balderrama told the newspaper. "But you don't expect it from your own sister, and you certainly don't expect it against a 3-week-old child."
Solorio-Rivera's defense attorney told ABC-30 that the family drama had reached a breaking point and that his client was not "evil." He told the station that Yanelly had made threats regarding Yarelly's children leading up to the murders.
"She's not such an evil core killer," defense attorney Curtis Sok told the station. "This was done out of love for her children, for the safety of her children."
