{"id":1040039,"date":"2026-09-03T02:45:37","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T02:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1040039\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T02:45:37","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T02:45:37","slug":"woman-sentenced-for-slaying-cal-fire-captain-wife-in-ramona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1040039\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman sentenced for slaying Cal Fire captain wife in Ramona"},"content":{"rendered":"

EL CAJON<\/p>\n

A woman who has stabbed two spouses to death was sentenced Wednesday by an El Cajon judge to 36 years to life in prison for the most recent of those killings, the slaying of her wife, Cal Fire Capt. Rebecca Marodi, in the victim\u2019s Ramona home last year.<\/p>\n

Yolanda Marodi, 54, pleaded guilty last month<\/a> to second-degree murder in the Feb. 17, 2025, slaying of 49-year-old \u201cBecky\u201d Marodi, who had been with Cal Fire for more than 30 years and was a captain at a station in French Valley in Riverside County.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe lost a hero in our community,\u201d El Cajon Superior Court Judge Selena Epley said while handing down the sentence, which the defendant had agreed to when pleading guilty. \u201cNothing this court can do can make up for the loss of this incredible human being.\u201d<\/p>\n

The victim\u2019s family and friends remembered her during Wednesday\u2019s hearing as a kind and generous daughter, cousin and friend who loved people and animals, especially horses, and who served her community honorably as a firefighter her entire adult life.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe moved toward danger to save others,\u201d Lorena Marodi, the victim\u2019s mother, said. \u201cMay God bless Cal Fire Capt. Rebecca Marodi for all the good she did and all the love she spread during her short lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LorenaLorena Marodi addressed her daughter’s killer Wednesday with the support of victim advocate Wendi Volpp. She said her former daughter-in-law, Yolanda Marodi, “needs to be kept behind bars for the rest of her life.” (Denis Poroy \/ For The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

In pleading guilty last month, Yolanda Marodi admitted that she had a prior strike and a serious felony conviction on her record for the October 2000 slaying of her estranged husband<\/a>, 27-year-old James Olejniczak, in San Bernardino County. Known at that time as Yolanda Olejniczak, she was subsequently convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to more than 13 years in prison. She was released on parole in that case in 2013.<\/p>\n

Yolanda Marodi attended Wednesday\u2019s hearing seated in a wheelchair and wearing a face mask. She did not speak in court, but she penned a three-page letter to the judge and the victim\u2019s mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cI apologize to you Lorena, for all of the pain and harm that I have caused you and so many others who also loved and cared for Becky,\u201d she wrote in part. \u201cThere is no excuse for taking your daughter\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Capt.Capt. Rebecca Marodi (Photo courtesy of Cal Fire)<\/p>\n

She wrote that she lives in her \u201cown hell every day\u201d and that she is begging her mother-in-law for forgiveness. \u201cNot for myself, for I am unworthy of your forgiveness, but for your inner peace and healing,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

According to court documents filed by prosecutors<\/a> and testimony at a preliminary hearing<\/a>, Rebecca Marodi sustained 23 stab wounds to her neck, chest and abdomen in the fatal attack. Prosecutors alleged that Rebecca was seeking to leave the couple\u2019s deteriorating two-year marriage shortly before she was killed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case \u2026 shows that no one is immune to domestic violence,\u201d District Attorney Summer Stephan said in a statement. \u201cWe can honor Captain Rebecca Marodi\u2019s memory by joining together to safeguard victims of domestic violence and hold their abusers accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fatal attack was partially captured on a doorbell camera, authorities have said. That footage has never been shown in court, but it\u2019s been described by prosecutors in an affidavit and by a sheriff\u2019s homicide detective during a preliminary hearing earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Detective Jessica Ricca testified that in the video, the victim could be heard calling out for her mother, who lived with the couple at Rebecca\u2019s small ranch on Rancho Villa Road. Yolanda Marodi allegedly responded, \u201cShe\u2019s not here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The footage allegedly showed Rebecca running and being chased by Yolanda. Then, after some time out of frame of the doorbell camera, the couple appeared again, and this time Rebecca was apparently covered in blood, Ricca testified during the preliminary hearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cYolanda! Please! (I) don\u2019t want to die,\u201d the Cal Fire captain can be heard saying in the video, according to the affidavit filed by prosecutors.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou should have thought about that before,\u201d Yolanda allegedly responded.<\/p>\n

\"DefendantYolanda Marodi, center, sits next to deputy public defender Emily Rose-Weber, left, during her sentencing hearing. (Denis Poroy \/ For The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

On the video, Yolanda could allegedly be seen standing in front of Rebecca holding a knife and telling her to enter the house, according to the affidavit. That document alleged that Rebecca repeatedly asked her wife to call 911 before the pair re-entered the home.<\/p>\n

Ten minutes later, the affidavit alleged, Yolanda was seen loading pets and luggage into an SUV. Less than an hour later, she allegedly drove into Mexico, where she remained on the lam for more than a month until she was detained in Mexicali<\/a>, across the border from Calexico in Imperial County.<\/p>\n

Lorena Marodi was the one who found her daughter lying dead in a pool of blood when she arrived home that night, authorities said. She told the judge Wednesday that she\u2019s still haunted by that image every day, and that the devastation ripples into every part of her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I refuse to let Yolanda\u2019s darkness consume me,\u201d Lorena said. She recalled how her daughter \u201cbrought out the best parts in me,\u201d and that in her adulthood they had become \u201cbuds.\u201d When Lorena retired, she moved into her daughter\u2019s home on the Ramona ranch to live a slow, quiet life.<\/p>\n

\u201cYolanda took my daughter, but she can\u2019t take decades of memories,\u201d Lorena said.<\/p>\n

While one of Rebecca Marodi\u2019s cousins told Yolanda that she had forgiven her, others who spoke Wednesday said no such forgiveness was forthcoming.<\/p>\n

\"KatieKatie Stewart said she and Rebecca Marodi’s other friends always knew Yolanda Marodi wasn’t good enough for the Cal Fire captain. “When you realized it, you killed her,” Stewart said during a fiery victim impact statement at Yolanda Marodi’s sentencing on Wednesday. (Denis Poroy \/ For The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

\u201cYour only legacy is being a pathetic coward,\u201d said Katie Stewart, a friend of the victim. \u201cIf you ever find yourself in front of a parole board, I\u2019ll be there, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge said that as part of the agreed-upon sentence, the District Attorney\u2019s Office had noted that it would object to Marodi ever being released on parole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL CAJON A woman who has stabbed two spouses to death was sentenced Wednesday by an El Cajon…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1040040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,356,5295,1370,728,50,8738,49960,3549,3550,7264,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1040039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-america","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-courts","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-north-county","tag-ramona","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-county","tag-sandiego","tag-top-stories-sdut","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117204822078565913","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1040039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1040040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1040039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1040039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1040039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}