35 years for grandma who threw girl off walkway


January 6, 2012 at 3:00p.m.

35 years for grandma who threw girl off walkway

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — A Virginia grandmother has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for murdering her 2-year-old granddaughter by tossing her off a sixth-level walkway at a busy shopping mall.

Fifty-one-year-old Carmela dela Rosa was convicted of killing young Angelyn Ogdoc in November 2010 at Tysons Corner Center. 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.

Dela Rosa apologized at a hearing Friday in Fairfax County court.

A jury recommended the 35-year sentence. At Friday’s hearing, Judge Bruce White had the option of reducing the sentence but left it, calling her actions “almost beyond comprehension.”