A California woman accused of fatally shooting her sister and baby niece carried out the murders because she was jealous that her own kids were being overshadowed, prosecutors say.
Yanelly Solorio-Rivera, 18, and her 3-week-old baby, Celine Solorio-Rivera, were shot dead at their home in Fresno on the morning of Sept. 24. Yanelly’s sister—22-year-old Yarelly Solorio-Rivera—has been charged with carrying out the killings along with her boyfriend, Martin Arroyo-Morales, 26. The pair could face the death penalty if convicted.
According to court documents reviewed by the Fresno Bee, Chief Deputy District Attorney Deborah Miller filed a motion Monday asking for the pair to be held without bail following their arrest on Nov. 9. The document details how Yarelly Solorio-Rivera allegedly initially attempted to direct detectives toward other suspects before ultimately admitting to carrying out the killings herself.
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Prosecutors believe Yarelly has two children of her own who she felt were being eclipsed by her sister’s new baby. “She was sick of Yanelly and the baby getting all of her parents’ attention and her kids were getting none,” Miller writes in the document.
Yarelly called 911 on the morning of the murders saying she’d heard gunfire inside her sister’s bedroom. Responding law enforcement found the family outside the house when they arrived at the scene. “Yarelly told officers that the family was frightened that the shooter may still be in the home and no one from the family went to check on Yanelly or Celine,” the document said.
Inside, police found Yanelly with gunshot wounds to her abdomen, chin, and arm, while the baby had been shot at least once in the back. Both were dead. “The murder scene was traumatic for all officers, detective, EMS personnel, and crime scene technicians who responded to the scene,” Fresno Police Chief Paco Balderrama said after the arrests.
At a press conference Tuesday, Balderrama said the 18-year-old mother still had her baby in her arms when police officers found them.
According to the court document, Yarelly began pointing the finger at her sister’s boyfriend as a possible suspect, but detectives later found he had a strong alibi. The investigators interviewed all the family members about where they’d been that morning and soon said they found inconsistencies in Yarelly’s story. Family members also remarked that it was odd that their guard dogs hadn’t alerted them to the fact a stranger was entering their home before the shooting took place.
Yarelly told officers she’d been out with a friend the night before the killings, adding that an injury to her lip had been caused by the friend hitting her. But she wouldn’t give the friend’s contact details to detectives, authorities said. And when investigators tracked the friend down, they reportedly said Yarelly had asked her to lie to cops about them being together. In fact, Yarelly had been with her boyfriend, who cops say was present during the murders.
Wiretaps on Yarelly’s phone and the phone of other family members revealed that at least one of the relatives blamed Yarelly for the killings, while another said they saw Arroyo-Morales running from the garage with a firearm in the wake of the shooting.
Yarelly and Arroyo-Morales were detained and charged with the murders. Yarelly is said to have initially told cops during questioning that Arroyo-Morales was the shooter, before later recanting and saying she herself pulled the trigger because she was jealous.
“She made it clear that the killings were planned between her and Martin and stated that she no longer could live with Yanelly,” the court document says.
It was not immediately clear if the pair had retained lawyers.
