La Quinta woman sentenced to two life terms for killing daughter

A La Quinta woman who tortured and fatally beat her 3-year-old daughter after abusing the toddler and an older daughter for months wassentenced today to two life prison terms.

Yolanda Guadalupe Pena, 43, was convicted in June of first-degreemurder, torture, assaulting a child causing great bodily injury and inflictinginjury on a child. The latter count related to a daughter who was 12 at thetime. Pena was sentenced to 25 years to life for the murder charge and life forthe torture, and the terms must be served consecutively.

The 3-year-old, Delilah Urrutia, suffered head trauma, second-degreeburns on her face, neck, chest, back and arms, cuts and bruises, and lost partsof three fingers, according to police and prosecutors.

Pena was arrested June 30, 2009, in connection with her youngestdaughter’s death, which occurred five days earlier.

The toddler was dead when authorities arrived at the family’s home inthe 44000 block of Vista Dunes Lane about 10:15 p.m. June 25, 2009. She died ofblunt force trauma to the head, according to the coroner’s office.

Pena told one of her two older daughters to pour hot water on Delilahfor misbehavior while the defendant was at work, causing burns over more than30 percent of the child’s body, according to Deputy District Attorney LisaDiMaria. When she got home, Delilah looked at her — which was not allowed –“and that set her off,” the prosecutor said.

“The defendant proceeded at that point to beat that little girl’sbrains out. She threw her against the wall, used a high-heeled shoe. …(Pena’s older daughters) said the defendant continued to hit Delilah in thehead at least 20 times,” DiMaria said.

Pena then stuffed a stocking in Delilah’s mouth, put a stocking over herhead, bound her wrists and ankles and put her in a plastic bin “liketrash,” the prosecutor said. Pena put the bin in a closet and left home withher older daughter to visit her best friend.

When they found Delilah dead later that night, her arms were up at 90-degree angles “because that is the way rigor mortis set her arms as she diedin that plastic coffin,” DiMaria told the jury.

She said the victim was the product of an affair Pena had while married.Her then-12-year-old daughter — who Pena also abused — told her fatherabout it, leading to the breakup of the marriage.

DiMaria said Delilah and her older sister would sometimes sit in thebathtub while hot and cold water was poured over them. Other times, Delilah wastied up in the plastic bin and put in a closet, with her mouth duct-taped, ortied up in the bathtub for days at a time, DiMaria said.

Pena told the daughter who hadn’t been abused that she would bepunished, too, unless she reported her sisters’ misdeeds to the defendant, theprosecutor said.

Pena’s attorney, Thomas Cavanaugh, conceded there was abuse in thehousehold, but told jurors that it was likely the tot “hit her head on thefloor more than once” while “fleeing from her sister.”

“By the time (Pena) got home, this child was in a very bad way,” he said.The defense attorney said Pena did not get medical help for Delilah, andthere was no excuse for that. But “those head injuries were caused beforeMs. Pena got home” and Delilah’s other injuries that day were not given at hermother’s direction.

“She did not inflict the injuries that caused her child’s death,” hesaid. “ … There are big questions about that day and a lack of forensicevidence.”

He also said there was no evidence of injuries to the two olderdaughters, and asked that jurors consider manslaughter instead of murder.