5 kids killed in ‘horrible murders’ this year, Fresno chief says. One case is unsolved
While updating reporters on the death of a pregnant mother, Fresno Police Chief Paco Balderrama noted a grim milestone: Five children under the age of 8 killed in homicides this year.
Five children have been killed in four incidents so far this year and three of those involved arson, Balderrama noted Wednesday.
“Four of the most horrible murders I have ever heard of in my 25 years in law enforcement,” he said.
Police arrested Aaron Dudley, 41, on Tuesday as he ran from the west Fresno home he shared with his pregnant 26-year-old sister, N-Kya Rebecca Logan, who was found dead in an alley as her body was burning the same day.
She was 36 weeks pregnant with a baby she planned to name Noah, police said. Logan had her baby shower the Sunday before she was found dead.
Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp said prosecutors can file a murder charge in California for an unborn child that has passed the embryonic stage, which is about seven or eight weeks of pregnancy.
“It is my anticipation that the People will be filing two counts of first-degree murder in this case with special circumstances,” she said.
Special circumstances charges carry a potential penalty of a death sentence or life in prison. Smittcamp stressed that prosecutors had not had a chance to meet with Dudley’s attorney and needed to do so before officially filing those charges.
Police have said the motive of the killing was not immediately clear and Dudley’s mental health needs to be assessed.
The killing of the mother and unborn child marked the 57th and 58th homicides in Fresno so far this year, and a 59th was reported Wednesday. There were 74 in all of 2021.
Most of the killing of children in Fresno this year involved young children under 2 and police have arrested relatives for the violence in all of the cases except for the one that is unsolved.
Sibling rivalry led to killing, police said
Police said Yarelly Solorio Rivera, 22, and Martin Arroyo Morales, 26, premeditated the killing of Yanelly Solorio Rivera, 18, and her 3-week-old girl, Celine. They were shot and killed around 7:20 a.m. Sept. 24 inside a home near Fruit and Jensen avenues.
The women were sisters and prosecutors have said sibling rivalry played a part in the older sister’s jealousy over the treatment of the younger sister and niece.
They also face the death penalty or life in prison.
Case of boy killed by arson goes unsolved
Police are still looking for information on who set a July 6 fire at the front and back doors of a home near College and McKenzie avenues that led to the death of 7-year-old Isaac Vallejo.
There were six people in the home when the fire started and at least one other was injured when they jumped from the second story to escape the flames, police said.
“We’ve gotten very little information despite the fact we’ve been able to raise the reward money in that case twice,” Balderrama said Wednesday.
Two children killed in arson fire
The uncle of 5-month-old Calyx Hurtado and his 18-month old sister, Cataleya Hurtado, is accused of setting the fire May 3 that killed both children and badly burned their mother.
Prosecutors have painted a picture of the uncle, 29-year-old Filimon Robert Hurtado, as a person who had a mental break with reality. He referenced human cloning and a celebrity conspiracy when interrogated, police said.
He used gasoline to set fire to his relatives and the home near Dakota and Brawley avenues where he lived with them and his brother, according to fire investigators.
