'Devil's Plan' Double Murderer Sentenced In LA County

LOS ANGELES, CA - A man who was convicted of first-degree murder for bludgeoning his mother and her friend with a four-pound hammer at his apartment in the Vermont Knolls area of Los Angeles was sentenced Monday to 52 years to life in state prison.

Superior Court Judge Eleanor J. Hunter ordered Vincent Rivera, 34, to serve the two 26-year-to-life prison terms one after another, saying that it would not be justice given "the facts of this case" to allow him to serve the terms at the same time as requested by the defense for the March 19, 2022, slayings of Norma Rivera, 60, and Carmen Doop, 72.

The judge noted that his mother's friend was attacked while sitting on a chair and that his mother was then attacked while she was using the restroom.

"She had to see her own son beating her to death," Hunter said.

After Rivera waived his right to a jury trial, the judge found him guilty earlier this month of two counts of first-degree murder and found true allegations that he had personally used a deadly weapon. The judge subsequently found that Rivera was sane at the time of the crime.

A surveillance camera mounted to a motel across the street from Rivera's apartment in the 7400 block of Figueroa Street captured the three retrieving two bags of groceries from the trunk of his mother's SUV before they walked into his apartment, with the video not reflecting any animosity, according to court papers filed by Deputy District Attorney Paul Przelomiec.

The court papers alleged that Rivera went to a Home Depot store two months earlier to buy "all of the implements he would need to kill the victims," and that detectives recovered notebooks in which he referred to his plans and created a checklist titled "The Devil's Plan" in which he documented how he intended to carry out the murders.

Rivera first used the hammer to repeatedly strike Doop on the left side of her head, then struck his mother repeatedly on the right side of her head after forcing his way into the bathroom by breaking off the door handle, according to the prosecutor's court filing.

After murdering the two, "the defendant used the 20-inch hand saw he had purchased to cut open both victims' abdomens," the prosecutor wrote, noting that Rivera then left his apartment and admitted to multiple 911 operators that he had murdered the two women.

Rivera claimed that his mother -- who was the only person who would visit the defendant at his apartment -- was physically abusive and neglectful throughout his life, according to the prosecution's filing.

The judge said Rivera's claims that he had been abused -- as early as when he was only a few months old -- were "only coming from the defendant's mouth."

In a statement read in court on her behalf, Rivera's sister, Melanie, said she has "anxiously waited" for 947 days "for justice to be served."

She said that her mother and father "provided a loving and supportive home," and that she never imagined that her mother -- whom she described as her best friend -- would lose her life that way.

"I feel robbed, cheated, having my mother taken away from us," she said.

Doop's daughter, Stephanie Folgar, told the defendant, "I will never forgive you ... You took away a person who even helped you ... My life will forever be shattered."

She called the victims "two beautiful people," adding, "Now they're in heaven together."

Doop's son, Kelly Orozco, told the judge, "Every day we wake up with a hole in our hearts."

"Please sentence him to a sentence that's never going to bring him or his memory back in our lives," he told the judge.

Rivera has remained behind bars since his arrest the day of the killings, jail records show.

City News Service