Grandmother who hurled toddler to her death from shopping mall bridge jailed for 35 years
Carmela dela Rosa killed the two-year-old out of anger that she had been conceived out of wedlock
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A woman who threw her two-year-old granddaughter to her death from a 45-foot-high bridge at a busy shopping mall has been jailed for 35 years.
Carmela dela Rosa, from Fairfax, Virginia, was found guilty of first degree murder last October for the horrifying killing of Angelyn Ogdoc.
A judge has now granted she serve the entirety of the hefty sentence recommended by the jury that convicted her.
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Locked up: A Virginia jury found Carmela dela Rosa guilty of murdering her two-year-old granddaughter. She has been sentenced to 35 years in jail
Dela Rosa threw Angelyn from the skywalk like a 'piece of trash' at Tysons Corner Center, Virginia state's largest mall.
She had deliberately walked behind the rest of the family with Angelyn as they exited along a skywalk between the mall and a parking garage, intending to throw the youngster over the rail without any interference.
She had been upset that her son-in-law, James Ogdoc, had impregnated her daughter out of wedlock, although the couple married shortly before Angelyn was born.
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ShareSpeaking after the sentencing, dela Rosa, 51, offered a tearful apology to her family, saying: 'I’m very sorry for what I’ve done.'
Dela Rosa’s lawyer Dawn Butorac had unsuccessfully argued that the grandmother's severe depression meant she was unable to understand right from wrong.
Butorac said she will appeal the verdict, and that she believes the jury did not fully appreciate the depth of dela Rosa’s depression.
Horrific: Angelyn Ogdoc was thrown to her death from a 45ft-high walkway by her grandmother who was angered the girl had been conceived out of wedlock
They said it was so bad in the months before Angelyn's death that she tried several times to commit suicide.
'When you say someone is depressed, there’s a misapprehension of what that means,' Butorac said.
'I don't get to wake up next to her anymore. We can't have breakfast with her anymore'
Mary Kathyln Ogdoc, mother of killed toddler
'She loved her granddaughter and would never do anything purposely to hurt her. Thus her mental illness is the only explanation for her actions.'
Prosecutors said dela Rosa's anger at her son-in-law became worse during the mall outing because he called his wife on a mobile.
In her confession, dela Rosa told detectives that she saw Angelyn as a way to get back at the son-in-law, Ogdoc.
In a brief sentencing phase of the trial, dela Rosa's daughter and Angelyn's mother, Mary Kathyln Ogdoc, cried as she described the impact of her daughter's death.
The toddler was flung from this pedestrian bridge at the shopping mall in Virginia
She said: 'I don't get to wake up next to her any more. We can't have breakfast with her any more.'
'It hurts to watch other children in her neighbourhood boarding a school bus knowing that Angelyn will never get that opportunity.'
Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh called the case one of the worst he has ever seen in a long prosecutorial career.
He added that Angelyn’s parents were still too traumatized to write formal victim-impact statements.
He said he took no pleasure in successfully prosecuting the case.
'It’s just been a real nightmare, to be honest with you,' he told the Associated Press.
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