Overview
- Yolanda Olejniczak Marodi admitted to second-degree murder earlier this week and also acknowledged a prior serious felony, a plea that reduces the case to a single sentencing hearing.
- The victim, Rebecca “Becky” Marodi, a Cal Fire captain with about 30 years of service, was fatally stabbed at her Ramona home during an argument on Feb. 17, 2025.
- Prosecutors built the case with an arrest-warrant declaration, preliminary-hearing testimony and home security (Ring) footage that shows the victim fleeing and being chased before she was fatally wounded.
- Hours after the killing the defendant crossed into Mexico and was located and arrested in Mexicali about a month later, then returned to U.S. custody by U.S. Marshals.
- The plea includes admission of a 2003 voluntary manslaughter conviction in the death of a former husband, a prior that increases the sentencing exposure and leaves family, colleagues and Cal Fire grappling with the loss.