A 32-year-old Torrance-area woman has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the murder of her three young daughters, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced on Monday.
Carol Ann Coronado’s sentencing came after she was convicted on Nov. 30, 2015, of first-degree murder in the fatal stabbings of her three young girls, 2-year-old Sophia, 16-month-old Yazmine and 2-month-old Xenia, according to a DA’s office news release.
A judge also found true the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders, and the special allegation that the woman used a deadly weapon in the commission of the crime, according to the release.
The children were killed on May 20, 2014, in Coronado’s West 223rd Street home, located in an unincorporated area between Torrance and Carson, according to the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, which investigated the case. She shared the residence with her husband.
The young victims were discovered deceased by their grandmother. Responding deputies were told by the suspect’s relatives upon their arrival that “a mother had killed her children,” sheriff’s investigators said at the time.
Deputies found the three little girls lying in a pool of blood on a bed with their mother; she was naked and holding a kitchen knife when they discovered her, authorities said.
Coronado then tried to harm herself, according to a DA’s office news release from Monday.
She had initially pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, but a judge later ruled that she was sane at the time of the killings.
