A Virginia grandmother convicted of murdering her 2-year-old granddaughter by tossing her off a sixth-level walkway at a busy shopping mall was sentened today to 35 years in prison.
Before receiving her sentence from a Fairfax judge, Carmela dela Rosa made a tearful apology in court.
In October 2011, she was convicted by a jury that recommended the 35-year sentence. The judge was able to either impose the full sentence, or reduce it if he saw fit.
Dela Rosa was convicted of killing young Angelyn Ogdoc at Tysons Corner Center after a family trip to the mall's food court in November 2010. Dela Rosa's lawyer argued unsuccessfully that her client was legally insane.
In a videotaped confession, dela Rosa told police she killed Angelyn to get back at her son-in-law for getting her daughter pregnant out of wedlock.
Mall security video showed dela Rosa carrying Angelyn out of the mall after urging everyone to go ahead of her, then going to the rail to drop the girl.
Dela Rosa twice attempted suicide in the months leading up to the incident. Friends and her longtime psychotherapist testified that she had suffered bouts of depression for a decade, but went into a tailspin after her daughter's pregnancy.
Public defender Dawn Butorac argued that dela Rosa was a different woman in her depressive episodes, withdrawn and "afraid of the world" to the point that she regularly refused to leave the house.
