Oakland woman was legally insane when she killed her daughter, court rules

"OAKLAND A woman has been sentenced to life in a mental hospital after an Alameda County judge affirmed she was insane at the precise moment she stabbed her 10-year-old daughter to death in their apartment, court records show. Rosa Orozco-Suarez, 35, was found not guilty by reason of insanity, and Judge Kimberly Colwell sentenced her to a maximum life term for second-degree murder, records show."

"Police say that on May 22, 2023, Orozco-Surarez posted a video of her daughter, Sophia Lorenzo Orozco, with the caption, This is how we say good bye on Facebook, and see you on the other side, authorities say. Then she signed off social media and allegedly stabbed the young girl to death before turning the knife on herself. She was hospitalized with self-inflicted knife wounds after she was arrested. Orozco-Suarez has been transferred to the state hospital system, records show."

"After her arrest, neighbors said that Orozco-Suarez appeared increasingly paranoid and unstable in the weeks leading up to the homicide. Some of her family members have blamed her stress on alleged domestic violence by Sophia's father, who was not present for the homicide. When a person is found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity, it is a legal finding that they killed the victim but either didn't understand the nature of their act or didn't understand it was wrong."

An Alameda County judge affirmed the defendant was legally insane at the moment she fatally stabbed her 10-year-old daughter and sentenced her to a maximum life term under a not-guilty-by-reason-of-insanity finding. Police say the defendant posted a video of the child on May 22, 2023, with the caption This is how we say good bye on Facebook, and see you on the other side, then signed off social media and allegedly killed the child before turning the knife on herself. She was hospitalized with self-inflicted knife wounds and later transferred to the state hospital system. Neighbors reported increasing paranoia in the weeks before the homicide, and some family members blamed her stress on alleged domestic violence by the child's father, who was not present. Under state law, an insanity acquittal results in psychiatric hospitalization for the length of the prison sentence unless doctors determine sanity has been restored.

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