A complicated and deadly family drama that unraveled in Fresno courtrooms for years came to an end on Wednesday.
“I would have to say that this is a complete family tragedy,” Fresno County Superior Court Judge Brian Alvarez said.
He sentenced Yarelly Solorio-Rivera to two counts of murder. At 25, she is now set to spend two life sentences in prison.
“She made a deal with the state, and the court’s going to follow through with that,” Judge Alvarez said. “She avoided the potential death penalty.”
Prosecutors say that in 2022, Solorio-Rivera shot and killed her 18-year-old sister, Yanelly, and then her sister’s infant daughter, who was three weeks old.
Solorio-Rivera’s defense attorney says the woman reached a breaking point after Yanelly threatened to hurt her children.
“She’s not such an evil core killer,” defense attorney Curtis Sok. “This was done out of love for her children, for the safety of her children.”
However, investigators have long painted a much different picture.
They say the woman was filled with jealousy toward her sister and the newborn and worked with her boyfriend, Martin Arroyo-Morales, to plan the murders.
He will now serve 22 years for voluntary manslaughter.
With the victim’s family also being the defendant’s family, Solorio-Rivera’s father showed up to support her.
“I come here to accompany my daughter today,” he said through a Spanish translator.
He squarely blamed the boyfriend.
“I believe that you are making the wrong decision, you and the DA, when they want to send my daughter to life for jail, when he is the one guilty of all of this,” the father said.
There was nobody in court to speak on behalf of the two young victims, and the two defendants never said a word.
“Yes, she has remorse,” Sok told Action News. “She’s very sorry. She knows she could’ve been better.”
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